B's Furious Third-Period Rally Falls Short in Buffalo

BUFFALO - The Bruins put forth a furious comeback effort in the third period, scoring three straight goals to pull within one, but ultimately it was too little too late as Boston's six-game winning streak came to an end with a 6-4 setback to the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night at KeyBank Center.
Boston fell behind, 5-1, early in the third period but stormed back with three goals - one each from Nick Ritchie, Kevan Miller, and Taylor Hall - in a span of 5:06 to cut the deficit to 5-4.
The Bruins appeared poised to tie the game as they pulled Jaroslav Halak for an extra attacker, but Buffalo capitalized on a turnover with an empty-netter with 42 seconds remaining to end any chance of a magical comeback.

"We didn't have our best early on," said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. "In the second period, we were in the game and we kind of took ourselves out of the game. Certainly, some of that is on us…some of it is, give them credit, they're a hungry team. They went to the net well, they shot more tonight, I think.
"They were willing to block more shots, they had a couple of really good blocks that guys put themselves in harm's way, and that's what it takes to win. We had those blocks last time, saw a couple of our guys got hit hard with pucks.
"It's little things you've got to do to win hockey games in this league and they did it tonight and I didn't think we did enough of it."
While the loss ended Boston's winning streak, it also brought to a close a three-game set in Buffalo over the course of four days. With such a condensed schedule over the final weeks of the regular season, there are likely to be some nights when pulling out points will require digging a bit deeper than usual.
"I liked our push back, we went to the net, scored some goals, stayed with it," said Cassidy. "And, really, had a chance to pull points out of this. Again, mismanaged the puck at the end, so we'll never know. In the big picture, in reality, Buffalo was probably the better team and deserved to win, but we did put ourselves in a position to get some points in the end, so that's a positive.
"But…not enough. It hurts to win and I'm not sure we did enough of the hard things tonight to get the win. And I think they did, so they were probably tired of losing to us and it showed in their play."

Bergeron Sits Out

Patrice Bergeron was a late scratch with a lower-body injury. The B's top pivot appeared to block a shot with his left foot early in Thursday night's victory, though Cassidy did not confirm the cause of the ailment. Bergeron is considered day-to-day.
"He's our No. 1 center, so we miss him in a lot of situations, but we're a pretty good team, we've got depth," said Cassidy. "In the past, we've won games without him in the lineup. Fortunately, this year we haven't had to play without him, he's been healthy. But I don't put that on him, I'm not going to say hey we lost the game because Bergy wasn't playing.
"I just said he's a facet of every part of our game, but there's other guys that are certainly capable. I don't think he had any effect on guys not being hard enough on pucks or playing a more determined game. That's on the individual and me to get it out of them.
"We missed him but certainly not the cause for defeat tonight."

Halak Gets Some Work

After the Sabres' fourth goal just 1:14 into the third period, Cassidy yanked Tuukka Rask 24 saves on 28 shots) and turned the net over to Halak. The netminder was making his first appearance since April 3 after spending nearly two weeks on the COVID list.
Halak (four saves on five shots) appeared a bit rusty on his first chance to handle the puck as a turnover in front led directly to Buffalo's fifth goal at 4:30 of the third.
"Jaro got a little bit of work tonight, he hadn't been in in a long time," said Cassidy. "Couple of reasons went into that. I didn't think we were particularly great in front of Tuukka, so try to spark the club a little bit, get him some live action."
Jeremy Swayman is expected to get the start on Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh with Rask slated to be back in for the road trip finale on Tuesday night against the Penguins.

Miller Cashes In

In the midst of the third-period comeback attempt, Miller - playing for the first time in five games - cashed in with a nifty dangle through the slot to pull the Bruins within 5-3 with 4:35 remaining. It was Miller's first goal since Dec. 27, 2017 against Ottawa and the 13th of his career.
"It was good. We were obviously making a push," said Miller. "It would have been nice to finish it off. But it is nice to score every now and then."
Miller had not played in 10 days after coming down with a foot infection that left him hospitalized for several days last week.
"I had a part of my skate that was rubbing on the top of my foot," said Miller. "It's been like that for years, never really had an issue. Out of nowhere, I got an infection - they call it cellulitis - on my foot and spent a few days in the hospital.
"Just unfortunate luck. They were careful about it. Felt good tonight, no issues. Hopefully no issues going forward."

Kampfer Piles Up Points

Steven Kampfer opened the scoring with his second of the year off a feed from Taylor Hall, who buzzed through the neutral zone and whipped a pass to a trailing Kampfer at the tops of the circles. Kampfer sailed into the slot where he let a wrister fly past Buffalo goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen - who was making his NHL debut - for a 1-0 lead just 2:15 into the first.
The veteran blue liner, who has filled in admirably during Boston's battle with injuries on the back end, also picked up two assists, with the primary helpers on goals from Miller and Ritchie.
"It shows the resilience in the room. We can come back from anything," said Kampfer. "Tough to win a hockey game when you show up for the last eight, nine minutes. That's on us in the room. It's the National Hockey League, every team is good, everybody can beat everybody."
It was Kampfer's first career three-point game and just the third multi-point performance of his career, the last coming on Dec. 29, 2019 against the Sabres (two assists).
"A team win will always trump whatever personal accolades you have," said Kampfer. "It's about the team, it's about getting two points, and it's about 20 guys in the room winning."