Tage Thompson scored two of the Buffalo Sabres’ four goals in the final eight minutes of the third period in a 4-3 comeback win against the visiting Boston Bruins in Game 1 of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series on Sunday night.
Mattias Samuelsson and Alex Tuch scored the final two goals and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 17 saves for Buffalo, the Atlantic Division champion that was appearing in its first playoff game in 15 years. Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Tuesday in Buffalo.
“Just a ton of emotion,” Thompson said of playing in the organization’s first playoff game since 2011. “These are the games that you dream of. So happy to finally be here and to be able to go to battle with these guys. It’s been such an unbelievable season, the fact that we got to this point. So proud of this group and it’s just a start.”
David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie each had a goal and two assists, Elias Lindholm also scored and Jeremy Swayman made 34 saves for Boston, the first wild card from the Eastern Conference.
Thompson cut it to 2-1 at 12:02 of the third when he pulled the puck out from behind the Boston net and pushed it across the goal line before Swayman could slide over.
Thompson recovered the puck below the goal line and went to the side of the crease before sliding the puck under Swayman’s pads to tie it 2-2 at 15:44.
Samuelsson then scored with a wrist shot from just above the left hash marks to give the Sabres a 3-2 lead at 16:36.
Tuch scored into an empty net with 1:12 left to make it 4-2, which came in handy after Pastrnak scored a power-play goal with eight seconds left to cut it to 4-3.
“We’ve been in these situations all season long,” Thompson said. “There was no panic in our room. I thought we had a really good 40 the first two periods. We knew if we stuck with it, one was going to go in. And we just needed one to go in for us, and that was when we knew we’d start to get a couple more.”
The Bruins took a 1-0 lead at 10:52 of the first period.
Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin blocked a shot by Pastrnak from just above the right circle off a rush, but the puck caromed to Geekie in the slot and he scored with a one-timer.
Geekie led the Bruins with 39 goals during the regular season.
The Sabres went on their second power play after Pavel Zacha was called for holding Alex Tuch, but the best scoring chance belonged to Boston forward Sean Kuraly, who stole a drop pass in the Buffalo zone before he was stopped on a breakaway at 1:41 of the second period.
Luukkonen also stopped Pastrnak on two breakaways during the second period to keep it a one-goal deficit.
“We played a really good hockey game for us,” Boston coach Marco Sturm said. “We just couldn’t finish it. That’s the frustrating point.”
Boston was outshot 13-4 in the second period, however, giving Buffalo a 27-13 edge entering the third, but the Bruins made it 2-0 at 1:08 of the third when Geekie’s shot from the slot hit the right post and the rebound came to Lindholm, who fired it into the net from the right hash marks.
–Field Level Media
