BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 Mattias Samuelson broke a tie 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
Thompson dismissed the narrative of the team lacking playoff experience by saying players drew on the frustrations of going so long without a postseason appearance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think eight years of adversity is enough experience to get you ready for something like this. I think any time you go eight years not making playoffs and then it\u2019s finally here, the last thing you want is regret,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cThere\u2019s just a heightened feeling of hunger. You just don\u2019t want to let this opportunity slip. I thought tonight was really important to make a statement and set our standard.\u201d<\/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. Jeremy Swayman made 34 saves. <\/p>\n
\u201cI really don\u2019t know,\u201d Bruins coach Marco Sturm said, when asked what happened. <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we were in the perfect spot. We were exactly where we wanted to play, being in that position five or six minutes left in the game,\u201d the first-year coach said. \u201cThat\u2019s something we have to learn again the hard way. We just have to stick with it for 60 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
After going 5,473 days between playoff games the Sabres delivered a stunning victory.<\/p>\n
Trailing 2-0 after Lindholm scored 1:08 into the third period, Buffalo finally caught a spark from Thompson, who led the team with 40 goals this season.<\/p>\n
Thompson\u2019s first goal came on a wrap-around backhander with 7:58 remaining. He then tied it by getting to a loose puck to the left of the Boston net, and firing a low shot inside the far post with 4:16 remaining.<\/p>\n
With the crowd still buzzing, Samuelsson scored 52 seconds later. Teammate Jack Quinn got to the puck deep in the Bruins zone and fed Samuelsson, who snapped a high shot in from the left circle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think the belief that was ever wavered,\u201d Samuelsson said. \u201cI just think we just had a lot of belief within the group. Just tried to ride the momentum with the fans and it worked out nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
This marked just the second time Buffalo overcame a two-goal third-period deficit. The other time also happened against Boston in a Game 4 first-round series-clinching first-round 6-5 overtime win in 1993. It\u2019s best remembered in Buffalo as the \u201cMay Day!\u201d game with Brad May scoring the decisive goal to secure the Sabres\u2019 first playoff series victory in a decade.<\/p>\n
The Bruins, the Eastern Conference\u2019s seventh-seeded team, unraveled in making their return to the playoffs following a one-year hiatus.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just couldn\u2019t finish it. That\u2019s the frustrating point, but it\u2019s a long series,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cWe\u2019re prepared. We came to Buffalo wanting to get a win. We didn\u2019t get one today, but we\u2019re going to try our best to get one the next game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pastrnak\u2019s three-point outing upped his career playoff total to 90 points, and moved him ahead of Cam Neely and Wayne Cashman for ninth on the team list, and two back of Bobby Orr.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NHL playoffs: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/stanley-cup<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 Mattias Samuelson broke a tie with 3:24 left and Buffalo overcame a two-goal deficit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5100],"tags":[6452,10544,95,62979,1107,229,5133,592,2677,9463,2178,4512,5,4022,156,12399,6164,1805,62978,13036,4261,13040,3328,13039,4,292,13038,1108,43,11120,13041,62980],"class_list":{"0":"post-558419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-sabres","8":"tag-alex-tuch","9":"tag-bobby-orr","10":"tag-boston-bruins","11":"tag-brad-may","12":"tag-buffalo","13":"tag-buffalo-sabres","14":"tag-buffalosabres","15":"tag-cam-neely","16":"tag-connecticut","17":"tag-ct-state-wire","18":"tag-david-pastrnak","19":"tag-elias-lindholm","20":"tag-hockey","21":"tag-jack-quinn","22":"tag-jeremy-swayman","23":"tag-maine","24":"tag-marco-sturm","25":"tag-massachusetts","26":"tag-mattias-samuelson","27":"tag-me-state-wire","28":"tag-morgan-geekie","29":"tag-new-hampshire","30":"tag-new-york","31":"tag-nh-state-wire","32":"tag-nhl","33":"tag-nhl-hockey","34":"tag-rhode-island","35":"tag-sabres","36":"tag-sports","37":"tag-vermont","38":"tag-vt-state-wire","39":"tag-wayne-cashman"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116455554678598270","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558419","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=558419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}