Much to the Bruins’ chagrin, we have ourselves a series.

Facing elimination last night, the Toronto Maple Leafs thoroughly outplayed the B’s early and then hung on for a 2-1 win at the Garden to force Game 6 tomorrow at the Air Canada Centre.

The Leafs showed they have resilience, confidence in the offensive zone and, perhaps most scary for the B’s, a goaltender who can come up with a great performance when it matters.

After a rough night in the B’s 4-3 overtime victory in Game 4, James Reimer made 43 saves, including 18 in the third period, to give Toronto another life.

But to test a goalie you have to at least throw some shots on him, and the B’s didn’t do much of that until it was too late. The Leafs took it to them for much of the first two periods, both forcing turnovers and simply allowing the B’s to make some unforced mistakes.

And Toronto cashed in on two of them, which would be enough on this night.

“This is something we have to take the blame for. It was of our own doing,” said coach Claude Julien, bemoaning the giveaways.

The Leafs came into the third period with a 1-0 lead on a Tyler Bozak shorthanded goal at 11:27 of the second period. The B’s finally had started to get a little momentum going when James van Riemsdyk was called for interference. Early in the power play the B’s had some pressure, and at one point Tyler Seguin had a chance to lift it over Reimer and couldn’t.

Then there was a long battle along the right boards, with the puck eventually going to Andrew Ference at the point. Ference tried to make a pass along the blue line but it hopped out over his stick and just out of the zone. Bozak pounced, eventually got some separation from the trailing Ference, and beat Tuukka Rask, who’d done a terrific job keeping the game scoreless in the first period.

“It sucks. It sucks to mishandle a puck, but it’s not a bad decision or anything like that,” Ference said. “It just happens, so it’s fine. It’s happened to all of us and you deal with it.”

Clarke MacArthur made it 2-0 at 1:58 of the third. Nathan Horton couldn’t handle Johnny Boychuk’s bank pass in the neutral zone and MacArthur picked it off. With Boychuk rushing to the puck, MacArthur gained the zone, beat Boychuk and tucked a backhander past Rask.

“I put it off the boards trying to get it to (Horton) and it took a hard bounce off the boards and to the middle,” said Boychuk, who later hit a post in a comeback attempt. “I tried to gap up, but he came with speed and scored.”

After that, the B’s started to attack and the Leafs helped them out, sitting back in a defensive shell. They got in front of as many shots as they could (27 blocked shots) and when they didn’t, Reimer was there for the save.

But Zdeno Chara finally got the Bruins on the board with 8:48 left in the third. After the B’s controlled the play in the Leafs zone for an entire shift, David Krejci found Chara coming down the slot, and the captain beat Reimer with a hard wrister.

The B’s got a power play with 3:48 left when Bozak shot the puck out of the rink, but they couldn’t put enough pucks on Reimer.

With Rask pulled, they came so close to tying it up. Jaromir Jagr hit the shaft of Reimer’s stick with 11 seconds left, and Seguin hit the post with four seconds left.

With a little more luck, the outcome could have been different. The Leafs, of course, could have said that about Game 4.

“Every once in a while, the hockey gods will take care of the people that deserve it,” Julien said. “Toronto played 40 strong minutes and they deserved to win. We have to lick our wounds and get ready for the next game.”

Game 6 shifts to Toronto, which shouldn’t really mean a whole lot. While the Leafs have taken 2-of-3 in Boston, the B’s won both games at the Air Canada Centre. But there’s little doubt as to which team is feeling more chipper today.

“I’m sure they feel good,” Rask said. “We would if we were in their shoes.”