Bruins lose to Sabres in OT, 3-2

While the Buffalo Sabres have been the standard of futility in the National Hockey League for over a decade now, the Bruins, in their current state, are now looking up at their lowly Atlantic Division rivals in terms of offensive talent.

That was clear for much of Monday night at the Garden but it took an Alex Tuch deflection of an Owen Power shot with 10.7 second left in overtime to lift the Sabres over the B’s, 3-2. The goal came with Marat Khusnutdinov in the penalty box for tripping, spoiling a strong effort from goalie Joonas Korpisalo (28 saves).

Interim coach Joe Sacco believed there was a slashing call to be made when Mason Lohrei had a 2-on-1 and David Pastrnak was not thrilled with how the game was called at the end.

“I felt like if anybody got a power play in overtime, it should have been us,” said Pastrnak. “That’s just my opinion. I was mad. Korpi got slashed when he covered the puck twice on that power play and they could have evened it up and they decided to look away. Frustrating that they got the power play opportunity in overtime but at the same time, we made the mistakes on the puck to make it happen.”

For the second game in a row, the B’s were held to fewer than 20 shots on net, managing just 19.

It doesn’t get any easier for the B’s, who start a long west coast road trip on Thursday in Vegas. The playoff hopes are becoming faint and management surely wouldn’t mind seeing the team continue to drop in the league standings to land a better draft pick.

But players don’t think that way.

“The effort was there today and played a much better game than last game but I guess we can build from that. But we need to be better. We’re going to a heavy west coast trip and if we don’t show up there with effort and hard work ethic, it’s not going to be pretty,” said Pastrnak.

At first, the first period looked like a continuation of the second period from Saturday night, when the Lightning outshot the B’s 21-0. The Sabres got the first six shots on net, one of which was a Peyton Krebs power-play goal at 4:19 after a Mark Kastelic tripping penalty.

But the B’s did something in the first period that they did not do on Saturday night. They got angry at their situation. A fourth line shift that ended with a kerfuffle in the Buffalo crease produced a Bruin power play. Then when old friend Connor Clifton took a boarding penalty, the B’s had a 51-second 5-on-3. They couldn’t capitalize on that, but they eventually took a 2-1 lead before the period was out. Still, a goal on a lengthy two–man advantage would have been nice.

“That’s an opportunity where you have to capitalize. Their power play got two tonight and we didn’t get any. You could say that was one of the differences in the game,” said Sacco.

Before the B’s goals came a big-boy fight between two towering men, Nikita Zadorov and Jordan Greenway, both of whom stand 6-foot-6. After Greenway landed a decent shot, Zadorov caught Greenway with a punch to the side of the head then pushed the Sabre to the ice.

Both goals came from the first line. First, Pavel Zacha tied it at 13:00 with his 14th of the year. Operating on the right wall, Pastrnak passed it to Morgan Geekie low in the right circle. Geekie did a great job of buying time so Zacha could move into the slot, where he received Geekie’s pass and beat Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who’d playing for the Geekie shot.

Geekie then gave the B’s the lead with his 23rd goal of the year at 15:13. Parker Wotherspoon sprung him for a partial breakaway. Buffalo defenseman Mattias Samuelsson initially tied up Geekie’s stick but the Bruin fought through it to beat Luukkonen.

That was it for offensive production from the Bruins.

In the second period, some of the same problems the B’s faced on Saturday with the long change cropped up again (they were outshot 9-4) though the Sabres did not dominate the period like Tampa did. But Buffalo did tie it up at 12:48. As play moved up and down the ice and both teams just missed on passes that could have led to scoring chances, the Sabres finally cashed in on one when, from the left dot, defenseman Owen Power sniped one over Joonas Korpisalo’s shoulder.

The B’s did have a couple of good chances. Pastrnak had a breakaway but Luukkonen squeezed the five-hole to deny him. Later in the period, Zacha had a clean break-in but he couldn’t get it through Luukkonen’s shortside.

The game went into the third tied 2-2 but the Sabres started it with 1:53 of power-play time after Ian Mitchell was called for tripping late in the second.

The B’s were able to kill that off and then needed a tremendous diving save from Korpisalo on Clifton at 8:05 to keep it even.

Then, with 5:13 left in regulation, Luukkonen robbed Elias Lindholm, whose shot looked like it was labeled for the shortside.

Late in regulation, Mason Lohrei coughed up the puck to Zach Benson and Korpisalo bailed him out to get the game to overtime.

Originally Published: March 17, 2025 at 9:51 PM EDT