I'm not going to say that the worst team in the NHL was due for a win but the Sabres (13-28-7) found a way to beat the Bruins (27-13-6) for the first time this season, 6-4 this evening at the KeyBank Center. The loss snapped Boston's season-high six-game winning streak and also their bid for a perfect campaign against Buffalo (now 5-1 with 2 games left to play). It wasn't B's goaltender Tuukka Rask's night (24 saves) either as he got pulled early in the third period and backup goaltender Jaroslav Halak made his first appearance since April 3 after he tested positive for Covid-19. Boston won on Tuesday and last night as well in Buffalo so it's tough to be too hard on them, still any loss to the Sabres these days is a really bad one.
Center Patrice Bergeron was a last-minute scratch for the B's with a foot injury (from blocking a shot on Thursday), that meant that BU's Charlie Coyle took his spot on the top line. Boston actually scored first before Buffalo buried them with a barrage of five goals in a row. Defenseman Steven Kampfer made it 1-0 in favor of the black and gold with a snipe off the post and in at 2:15 of the first period. Left wing Taylor Hall and Rask provided the assists on Kampfer's second goal of the season. After going 0-for-11 in the previous two tilts this week against Boston, Buffalo's power play went 2-for-3 tonight. Center Sam Reinhart tied it with a power play tally at 15:40. Defenseman Rasmus Dahlin and left wing Victor Olofsson had the assists on Reinhart's team-leading 18th goal of the season.
Things started to fall apart for the Bruins in the second period as Dahlin made it 2-1 at 6:54 (his 5th goal of the season was assisted by center Riley Sheahan and left wing Tobias Rieder) then center Casey Mittelstadt put the Sabres up 3-1 at 14:17. UConn's Tage Thompson and rookie defenseman Mattias Samuelsson (1st NHL point) picked up the helpers on Mittelstadt's ninth goal of the season. It only got worse for the B's early in the third period as Buffalo continued to pour it on. Rookie right wing Arttu Ruotsalainen gave the Sabres a three-goal lead (something I'm sure they have not experienced too often this season) at 1:14. Center Dylan Cozens and Samuelsson had the assists on Ruotsalainen's fourth goal of the season and his second in two nights. That's when Rask's outing was over and things didn't start much better for Halak since Reinhart got another power play goal at 4:30.
That's when Boston mercifully remembered who they are (and who the Sabres are) because they rattled off three straight goals to briefly cut it to a one-goal game (5-4) late in the third. Left wing Nick Ritchie scored his 12th goal of the season at 12:06 (assisted by Kamper and right wing Jake DeBrusk) and it was also his second game in a row with a tally after he had gone 13 consecutive games without one. Defenseman Kevan Miller scored his first regular season goal since December 2017, cutting it to 5-3 at 15:25 (Kampfer and left wing Sean Kuraly notched the assists on that one). I have to admit that I thought Buffalo would blow it when left wing Taylor Hall's attempted pass deflected into the net past rookie goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (36 saves) who was making his NHL debut. Hall famously had just two goals for Buffalo this season and that was already his third in a Bruins uniform with defenseman Charlie McAvoy and center David Krejci registering assists on that goal at 17:12. Boston had plenty of time left to tie it but they couldn't and it was over when Reinhardt put in an empty-net goal at 19:18.
I can't imagine how badly that the Bruins wanted to get out of Buffalo after spending at least the past four days there. Their reward is a trip to Pittsburgh (30-14-3) where they will meet the Penguins on Sunday afternoon (3, NBC) and then the rematch on Tuesday (7, NESN). Boston is 4-2 against Pittsburgh in 2021 so this two-game set will close their season series. The Pens are three points ahead of the B's while Boston has a game in hand. If they want to have a chance to catch them, they can't afford to get swept. Conversely, if the Bruins can win both games, the East Division will be complete chaos down the stretch.
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