By Randy Schultz; Photos by Janet Schultz©
It took almost 50 minutes of the hockey game to do it, but the Buffalo Sabres finally got a puck past Boston Bruins goalie, Jeremy Swayman. Then it a period of a little over four minutes the Sabres scored two more times.
By the time it was all over the Sabres had come from behind by two-goals to defeat the Bruins, 4-3 and win the opening Stanley Cup playoff game before another sold-out crowd at Buffalo’s KeyBank Center.
Boston had a first period 1-0 lead on a goal by Morgan Geekie. Following a scoreless second stanza, the Bruins scored again early in the third period on a goal by Elias Lindholm.
With less than eight minutes remaining in the third, Tage Thompson scored back-to-back goals to tie the game for the Sabres. Then Mattias Samuelsson scored to give Buffalo it’s first lead.
Alex Tuch scored into an empty net with just a little over a minute left in the period to give the Sabres a 4-2 lead. And with just :08 remaining Boston’s David Pastrnak scored a power play goal to make the final, 4-3.
“I think we’ve been in situations like this all season that prepared us for games like this,” said Thompson following the game.
“When we scored the first one, the place just erupted and you could feel the energy building,” added Samuelsson. “I think we felt that once we cracked him we could go from there.”
Ruff added to that.
“You could feel the building shake,” commented Ruff. “I’m glad we could give those fans that third period.
“The fact that we were wearing them (the Bruins) down, paid off.”
First Period Gallery
Second Period Gallery
Third Period Gallery
