Will Sabres’ road excellence override Bruins’ home brilliance again in Game 4?
The Buffalo Sabres take aim at their second straight road win in Boston and full command of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series when they meet the Bruins in Game 4 on Sunday afternoon.
How unlikely would back-to-back road wins be? Well, no team in the NHL earned more home wins during the regular season than Boston's 29. On the other hand, Buffalo enjoyed significant road success after Dec. 8 -- posting a 22-4-2 record that coincided with their sharp climb to the top of the Atlantic Division.
The Sabres continued their trend with a 3-1 win Thursday that claimed a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
"I (told the team before Thursday's game), ‘You're gonna get a different type of atmosphere, but just believe in the way we need to play,'" Ruff said of the shift to Boston's TD Garden. "And I thought we executed that to a T."
Thursday's encounter was another come-from-behind effort for Buffalo, as it scored the last two of its three straight goals in the third period to erase Boston's lead from Tanner Jeannot's opening tally.
After Alex Tuch scored the go-ahead and eventual game-winning goal at 4:03 of the third, the Sabres' penalty kill (10-for-12 in the series) took care of back-to-back penalties to help finish off the win.
Rookie Noah Ostlund and Bowen Byram each had a goal and an assist for the Sabres.
Alex Lyon provided steady goaltending in his first start of the series, stopping 24 of the 25 shots he faced. He also denied Viktor Arvidsson's penalty shot in the second period.
"We came (into Game 3) with a great mindset and you could feel it in the room, that we were just going to send it for 60 minutes and kind of that's all you can do, you know?" Lyon said. "The team gave me confidence, and we played desperately, so it was good."
If the Sabres can put together another complete effort, then they would have a chance to finish the series on home ice. Game 5 is Tuesday in Buffalo.
The Bruins have been right there, taking leads in all three games and letting them slip in the final frame in both of their losses.
Jeannot, whose goal was the first of his playoff career, knows that there is no option other than to enter the game with the same mindset.
"Just move on. Go to the next game, start thinking about that," Jeannot said. "We will see what we need to do, what we need to change and continue building our game. It's a long series, and we're not giving up, that's for sure. We are going to be fighting for the home crowd again."
Of course, both teams are playing the same schedule, but the Bruins hope that the rare two days of rest between games could benefit them as they look to square the series again.
First-year coach Marco Sturm is expected to have a different lineup coming out of the extra day. James Hagens, the Bruins' 2025 first-round draft pick who made his NHL debut on April 12, is likely to draw out in favor of Lukas Reichel.
The 19-year-old Hagens, who played in just two regular-season games after being recalled from AHL affiliate Providence, has teamed up with Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov on what Sturm has dubbed the "kid line."
The trio has largely performed well, but it was a tough Game 3 for Hagens. In particular, Byram's game-tying goal deflected off his stick and past goaltender Jeremy Swayman.
"Consistency is the hardest part for those young kids, it really is," Sturm said. "You need the experience and you need those games to go through it. And that's where we're at right now. Can they stay consistent? Yeah, there was a little drop (in Game 3). It's hard in the playoffs."