DeBrusk helps Bruins hold off Sabres, sweep home-and-home

BOSTON --Jake DeBrusk scored two power-play goals 18 seconds apart in the third period, and the Boston Bruins extended their point streak to seven games with a 3-2 win against the Buffalo Sabres at TD Garden on Sunday.

DeBrusk responded after coach Bruce Cassidy limited the forward to a team-low 2:22 of ice time in the first period for the Bruins (24-7-9), who are 4-0-3 in their past seven games after sweeping a home-and-home from Buffalo.
"I mean, I've done it since I've been here," DeBrusk said. "Anytime that things like that have happened, I think it was my second shift of the game, so anytime you don't really get your feet wet at all, you obviously want to respond, you want to help the team. I think the shots were 6-2 for Buffalo], I think it was 1-0 for us after [that], so I just wanted to help maybe get some more offense going, maybe win some more puck battles. But like I said, just trying to figure out my game."
***[WATCH: [All Sabres vs. Bruins highlights]*
Forward Patrice Bergeron was held without a goal and failed to tie Phil Esposito as the only Bruins player with multiple goals in four straight games. He scored two goals in each of the past three games.
David Pastrnak had a goal and an assist, and Tuukka Rask made 24 saves for the Bruins, who have won three in a row.

Rasmus Ristolainen had a goal and an assist, and Linus Ullmark made 19 saves for the Sabres (17-16-7), who have lost three in a row and are 1-5-1 in their past seven games.
"Yeah, it's definitely painful at this moment because the effort was there right through and we were building an excellent game," Sabres coach Ralph Krueger said. "It took a different course in the third. I think everybody can make judgment of where that happened, and I was pleased with the reaction of that, guys came back at it and they never gave up on it."
With Sabres forward Johan Larsson called for a double-minor at 1:23 of the third period for tripping DeBrusk and hooking Brad Marchand, DeBrusk gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead at 2:37 with a redirect of a pass by Steven Kampfer, who had his first two assists of the season.
"Yeah, so I saw him coming around the net," Kampfer said. "[Pastrnak] made a great play up the seam there when I was at the point, and then I saw Jake kind of get lost and turned around, he was standing right there, so it was a pretty quick play, but I was glad he was there."
DeBrusk made it 3-1 at 2:55 with a shot from the left corner that went past Ullmark on the short side.
Curtis Lazar cut the lead to 3-2 at 5:08 on a rebound of a Ristolainen shot.

Pastrnak gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 12:39 of the first period on a 2-on-1 with Marchand. It was Pastrnak's NHL-leading 29th goal of the season, and it ended a season-long five-game goal drought.
Ristolainen tied it 1-1 at 6:37 of the second period when his shot squeaked through Rask's five-hole and then went in after Zdeno Chara tried to tuck it under Rask's pad.
"Yeah, I mean … you've got to always battle and play hard," Ristolainen said. "But the only thing I care about is the result. It doesn't matter which way it comes, playing good or bad, but we need points."

They said it

"I've always tried to take the positive approach, where the sun's going to come up tomorrow and you take those positives. But we're in a league where it is about winning. That's the bottom line and you know we've got to figure it out just to get that extra five or 10 percent, but we've got the group of guys to do it, I know it." -- Sabres forward Curtis Lazar
"I think anytime you contribute offensively to help the team win is a huge bonus, so you know just to do it in the third period there was great because we weren't really generating too much offensively before that." -- Bruins defenseman Steven Kampfer

Need to know

The Sabres have lost four straight on the road. … Bruins defenseman Connor Clifton didn't play after the first period because of an upper-body injury. There was no update. … Rask extended his home point streak from the start of the season to 15 games (10-0-5), the longest such streak since Gilles Gilbert started the 1973-74 season 16-0 with one tie. … Pastrnak has a seven-game point streak (three goals, nine assists).

What's next

Sabres: Host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; MSG-B, SUN, NHL.TV)
Bruins:At the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday (1 p.m. ET; SN, TVAS, MSG, NESN, NHL.TV)