{"id":556480,"date":"2026-04-20T02:43:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T02:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556480\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T02:43:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T02:43:24","slug":"sabres-score-4-3rd-period-goals-to-beat-the-bruins-4-3-in-playoff-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556480\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabres score 4 3rd-period goals to beat the Bruins 4-3 in playoff opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 Mattias Samuelson scored with 3:24 left and Buffalo overcame a two-goal deficit in the final eight minutes to beat the Boston Bruins 4-3 on Sunday night in the Sabres\u2019 first playoff game in 15 years.<\/p>\n

Tage Thompson scored goals 3:42 apart to tie it, and Alex Tuch sealed the victory by scoring into an empty net with 1:12 left in nearly blowing the roof off the arena.<\/p>\n

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 17 shots.<\/p>\n

Buffalo hosts Game 2 of the first-round series Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

The playoff win was Buffalo\u2019s first at home \u2014 and first overall \u2014 since a 1-0 victory over Philadelphia in Game 4 of a first-round series April 20, 2011. The Sabres proceeded to lose the series in seven games. The Sabres won their first Atlantic Division this season and snapped an NHL-record 14-season playoff drought.<\/p>\n

David Pastrnak scored with seven seconds remaining, and had two assists for Boston. Morgan Geekie and Elias Lindholm also scored for the Bruins. who finished the regular season 33-2-4 when leading after two periods.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Swayman made 34 saves. <\/p>\n

\"Buffalo<\/p>\n

Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, right, watches the puck go wide during the second period in Game 1 against the Boston Bruins in a first-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Buffalo, N.Y. Credit: AP\/Jeffrey T. Barnes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 Mattias Samuelson scored with 3:24 left and Buffalo overcame a two-goal deficit in the final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[95,229,5,4,1105],"class_list":{"0":"post-556480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-boston-bruins","9":"tag-buffalo-sabres","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116434738305695233","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}