The Buffalo Sabres began their four-game homestand against the Boston Bruins on a sluggish note, stumbling through the opening 40 minutes and trailing 2-1 before rallying to take the lead, but the Sabres allowed Boston to tie the game late in the third and lost 4-3 in overtime on Pavel Zacha’s goal 38 seconds into the extra frame.
The Buffalo rally was due mainly to the work of pesky Zach Benson, who blew past a defender at the end of a Bruins power play and scored, and drew an undisciplined penalty from Boston’s Mason Lohrei, which resulted in Jason Zucker’s second power play goal of the game. Former Sabre Casey Mittelstadt evened the score with six minutes remaining, before Zacha gave the Bruins the win, slipping a wrist shot five-hole past Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
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Head coach Lindy Ruff spoke to the media after the game:
What happened on the overtime goal?
I think we just didn’t play the entry well. Our forward that was back, kinda got caught on the D side. We opened up the shot. I didn’t really like our first forward, that he swung by Pastrnak either……..you’re out of your zone and responsible for a guy or your man on man as soon as he gets over the blue line.
What was the reason for the improved play in the third?
(We) went back to simple, went back to working harder. Those first two periods were probably our poorest periods of last three months. I thought there’s a lot of things, puck decisions weren’t very good. You’re playing a team that’s battling as hard as it can to stay in a playoff picture. They won more battles. I don’t think (that) had anything to do with being sluggish; that has a lot to do with willpower. To get over the puck and make sure you win your battles. And we didn’t win enough of them. Started at the start of the game, and then you watch some of our puck play in the second period that we just gave them opportunities. In the third period, we got back to playing our game, (we) went north, put the puck in the right place, had a good power play, created turnovers. We didn’t give up anything.
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What did you think of the play of Conor Timmins in his first game in three months?
I thought Timmins on our penalty killing (was) rock solid, and that penalty killing has been hurting now for a little bit.
Your changes on special teams seemed to work well:
We’re trying to move some things around. We were just trying to, and I thought the power play looked really good for only practicing once. Move (Tage Thompson) around a little bit, use them in the bumper, try to get them up high on top of the circle, try to get him in different places where they they got to try to find them and let those guys operate low. But I thought he made a great play on the on the second (power play goal), going behind the net.
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