BUFFALO, NY — The Boston Bruins (0-1) led the Buffalo Sabres 2-0 with eight minutes to go in the third period in Game 1.
By the time the final horn sounded, Buffalo flipped the game and won 4-3, scoring four straight goals in 6:46 to take a 4-2 lead. David Pastrnak scored a consolation tally with six seconds to play, making it 4-3.
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Bruins Head Coach Marco Sturm postgame still couldn’t fully believe it.
“I thought we were in the perfect spot,” Sturm said. “We were exactly where we wanted to play, being in that position, five-six minutes left in a game.
“You could tell they got a little bit frustrated, and yeah, we made pretty much two mistakes to let them tie up the game, and then, obviously, with the crowd behind [them], all of a sudden they got some life, and all of a sudden, the game is done.”
The stunning collapse came after Buffalo finally broke through on Jeremy Swayman in the third period, with Tage Thompson striking twice.
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“[It’s] really unfortunate, because my guys played really well,” Sturm said. “Really well. But that’s playoffs, that’s something we have to learn again, the hard way. We just got to stick with it for 60 minutes.”
Swayman, who faced 37 shots in the game, was measured postgame but critiqued Boston’s defense on zone entries, particularly in the second period.
“I think that they did a good job of penetrating our zone,” Swayman said. “There were a lot of quality chances, so that’s important to reduce those.”
It wasn’t all negative from Swayman, though.
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“We still did keep them at bay,” Swayman said. “[We] did a great job of blocking shots and making simple plays in our zone to eliminate that amount of zone time.”
Buffalo, for their part, looked at their physicality as to how they overcame the deficit.
“We won a couple of battles behind the net,” Sabres Head Coach Lindy Ruff “We beat their guys back to the front of the net… We made them pay for those couple of mistakes down low. They weren’t getting beat early. I think maybe some of our physicality wore them down.”
Tage Thompson called Boston’s collapse a death by a 1,000 cuts.
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Still, despite the loss, the Bruins believe in themselves.
Sturm said they came here looking for at least one win, and can go get in on Tuesday.
David Pastrnak emphasized that, praising Boston’s efforts tonight.
“The will is there,” Pastrnak said. Guys blocking shots, guys battling hard, and most of the nights you’re going to win more games like that than you will lose. Like I said, the will is there. It’s been there the whole year with this group, so we just have to regroup.”
Game 2 takes place Tuesday night inside KeyBank Center, with puck drop scheduled for just after 7:30 on the East Coast.
