The Boston Bruins hit the road to take on the Buffalo Sabres. The two teams have had polar opposite results in the win and loss column. The Bruins were 3-1-1 in their last five games, whereas the Sabres were coming off a four-game road trip and went 1-3. The Sabres got back into the win column and took advantage of a Bruins team that’s without their top three defensemen.
First Period
The Sabres pushed the pace at the start of the period. They showed why they are a good first-period team and had their legs going immediately. Both teams generated good chances from the start, especially Charlie Coyle, who got robbed by Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. The chances kept coming, but finally, the Bruins broke the ice.
After a failed clearing attempt by the Sabres, Bruins defenseman Mason Lohrei displayed a shifty move at the blue line, skated into the slot, and fired a shot to make it 1-0. 55 seconds later, the Sabres tied the game. On an odd-man rush, Dylan Cozens set up Tage Thompson who blasted a slap shot past Jeremy Swayman. Neither team scored the rest of the way and headed to the second period tied at one.
Second Period
The Sabres grabbed the lead early into the second period. They executed perfectly in the offensive zone and caught the Bruins off-guard. Mattias Sammuelsson skated down the slot and slid a pass over to Ryan McLeod. With the Bruins over-committing defensively, it allowed Thompson for the easy tap-in goal to make it 2-1. Two minutes later, the Sabres extended their lead. Defenseman Owen Power slid a pass to winger J.J. Peterka who fired a perfectly placed shot past Swayman to make it 3-1.
The Bruins managed to get good looks and good quality looks . A late penalty called on Brad Marchand gave the Sabres a power play. The Sabres failed to convert but took the remaining time into the third period as well as their 3-1 lead.
Third Period
The Sabres failed to convert on the power play that carried over, but they extended the lead. 3:13 into the third period, Thompson completed the hat trick, which was the seventh of his career. Off a great give-and-go, he fired a rocket of a shot past Swayman to make it 4-1. Both teams traded penalties, and the Bruins had a little power play time left. Marchand got the Bruins back on the scoreboard after taking a feed from Elias Lindholm. 30 seconds later, Peterka answered and displayed a nifty move on Swayman to extend the lead back to 5-2. After the Bruins pulled the goalie with over 5:30 left in the period, Peterka scored the empty net goal to give himself a hat trick. Zach Benson scored with 12 seconds left on a late power play and the Sabres won convincingly 7-2.
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