Buffalo gets back home advantage after winning 3-1 in Boston to take 2-1 series lead
Boxscore
Score: Buffalo Sabres 3-1 Boston Bruins
Shots: BUF 28-25 BOS
Buffalo Sabres Goals: Byram 2 (Ostlund, Power); Tuch 2 (Krebs, Byram); Ostlund 1 EN (Quinn)
Boston Bruins Goals: Jeannot 1 (McAvoy)
Quick Thoughts
The Lyon King Still Reigns
No matter what happened in Game 2 with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, there is a school of thought that Alex Lyon was the better choice between the pipes when the series returned to Beantown. With a Sabres’ record ten straight road wins under his belt this season, Lyon has been calmer on the road and showed it tonight.
He was beaten by a screened shot that leaked through him in the second to let the Bruins to go in front for the third straight time this series, but shut the door time and again before and after that, showing quicker lateral mobility and positional discipline than his fellow goalie UPL. Despite being serenaded by a packed but somewhat muted Garden, Lyon remained his unflappable self even as the Bruins threw the kitchen sink at him towards the end.
The veteran goaltender made a pivotal stop on an Arvidsson penalty shot seconds after the Sabres had leveled the game, and those timely saves we’ve been talking about all season long? The Sabres got that today, and with how well the Sabres played, there was almost a sense of inevitability that Buffalo was winning this one.
Welcome Back Ostlund
The eyerolling and handwringing before the game from Sabres fans after news came out of Josh Norris’ latest injury had risen to a fever pitch just before puck drop. After 7pm, all of that was forgotten when Noah Ostlund reminded us all how good a player he’s become this season. His all-round vision, poise on the puck and hunger to make a difference were sorely missed.
Ostie missed the last few games of the season with an injury but keeping him in reserve only sharpened his edge, and what a weapon Lindy Ruff has that he can roll out when the Sabres are already more stacked in terms of offensive talent than the Bruins.
Tonight he broke the game open with a seeing-eye pass from underneath to the face-off dot for Bowen Byram to tie the game at one, and then his hustle to fight off three Bs and guile to hold the puck instead of first-timing a shot got him an empty-netter to seal the win, going five-hole under Pastrnak to boot.
Perfect Road Game
The hosts are desperately trying to be the Big Bad Bruins of yore, but are having a hard time handling these Sabres who not only outhit them (38-35), but also outskated, outface-offed (26-25) and outshot (28-25) them consistently. After Tuesday night many thought the pendulum had swung towards Boston and that they would overwhelm the Sabres early. Lindy sent out the Quinn – McLeod – Zucker line to start and Krebs – Thompson – Tuch immediately after with both lines getting the puck deep and laying early hits that immediately took the hyped crowd out of it.
During the second period intermission ‘The Great One’ Wayne Gretzky said he thought that this was the best the Sabres had played this season and he expected Buffalo to win, and he was spot on. minute, and the parade line to the penalty box never really stopped for the rest of the evening.
Two players that the Sabres need playing well to win both had good games too – Jason Zucker and Alex Tuch. The former has been somewhat unseen so far but he gave the Bruins fits all night and Tuch got an excellent goal too, his gamewinner beating Swayman over the shoulder with Tage screening the goalie.
Power Play Drought Continues
There’s no sugarcoating it, the power play is currently a five-alarm fire. They went 0-5 tonight with the man advantage, and are now 0-14 for the series against the league’s 24th best penalty kill during the regular season. They haven’t scored in their last 36 power play opportunities. Yikes.
Tonight, the power play actually looked competent at times, with forwards moving around, getting traffic around Swayman and not always waiting for the Bruins penalty killers to get set before taking a shot. But despite a melee in front of goal when Swayman had drifted too far out, black sweaters littered the blue paint to keep the Sabres out. They came much closer to scoring than they had so far, but the embarrassment continues.
With two days now before Game 4 on Sunday, the focus in practice has to be on sorting out the power play.
Power & Byram > Dahlin & Samuelsson
As the series has gone on, the Sabres second defensive pair have come from behind to outplay the first pair. In the first game Sammy was incredible and Dahlin good, but since then they’ve become magnets for unfortunate situations. The pair were brutal in Game 2, and tonight Sammy saw his stick blow up when he was the last man back, with Dahlin then forced to bring down Arvidsson to give up the penalty shot. Dahlin is still getting off plenty of shots mostly from the perimeter, but with how dialed-in Swayman has been, he’s got to try something different. The pair have combined for twenty hits and have played the hard minutes, but are yet to get things clicking offensively.
Meanwhile, before the playoffs plenty of fans thought the pair of Power and Byram would struggle against the physical game the Bruins play. Instead, the two dmen have kept their noses clean and eyes on the Boston goal, and both have three points each in three games. Bo is second only to Ras in terms of minutes played per night, while Opie has been on ice for the same amount of minutes as Sammy.
Power and Byram are both +4 each, while Dahlin is at 0 and Samuelsson is -1.
At The Horn
The Buffalo Sabres had a steely, resolute kind of calm air about them today and that has led to wins more times than not this season. They didn’t get suckered out of position chasing the big hits while still laying the lumber, finishing their checks and causing the Bruins to turn pucks over in dangerous areas.
Lindy’s goalie tandem worked wonders this season with Lyon stepping in and taking the reins when UPL lost the plot, and vice versa. Tonight we saw that work out again for the Sabres, and we’ll likely see Lyon keep the net for Game 4.
The future of the Sabres looks very bright with that Benson – Ostlund – Doan line having a very good game. Jack Quinn has been handed the keys to the powerplay and he was good too.