Marchand Extends Point Streak to 9 as Bruins Edge Sabres

BOSTON -- Brad Marchand extended his point streak to nine games for the Boston Bruins in a 3-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres at TD Garden on Saturday.

Charlie Coyle and Morgan Geekie also scored, and Joonas Korpisalo made 19 saves for Boston (18-13-4), which extended its point streak to four (3-0-1). David Pastrnak had two assists.

“We weren’t at our best tonight, and Buffalo played very well. They deserve credit,” Bruins interim coach Joe Sacco said. “They came out, they showed that they were a desperate team tonight looking for a win. They outplayed us in the first period, they were half a step ahead of us, but we stuck with it.”

JJ Peterka scored, and James Reimer made 16 saves for Buffalo (11-19-4), which lost its 13th straight game (0-10-3).

“I thought we deserved better,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “We didn’t quite make the ‘next’ play offensively. … I think when it’s going bad, it goes bad.”

Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin did not play after he returned on Friday from a seven-game absence due to a back injury, but Ruff said his absence was planned.

Geekie gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead at 18:15 of the third period with a power-play goal, firing off a one-timer from Pastrnak.

“It’s definitely a good look. It’s one of those shots that’s tough to pass up, for sure,” Geekie said. “So just try to get more in that shooter’s mentality and not pass those up.”

Coyle gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 8:15 of the first period. Reimer made the initial stop on Coyle’s breakaway from out of the penalty box, but Coyle poked the puck through while laying on the ice.

“My eyes lit up,” Coyle said. “That’s never happened to me. But take an offensive zone penalty, you’re just hoping those guys kill it off, and they did a great job. That was probably the only good part about it was us capitalizing on the other end. But it’s a testament to the guys who bailed me out and then put me in the position to try to help the team.”

Peterka tied it 1-1 at 18:23 of the second period on the power play, snapping it off Korpisalo’s blocker and in.

“We can’t sit there and we can’t think about all the negative stuff that’s happened to us,” Sabres forward Alex Tuch said. “We got to take some of the positives and try to carry that over, or else we’ll just eat ourselves alive.”

Before scoring the game-winner, Geekie appeared to retake the lead at 7:16 of the third period after skating in and beating Reimer glove side with a wrister, but the goal was ruled offside after a coach’s challenge.

“It was clearly offsides, so nothing you can do. You move forward,” Pastrnak said. “And good on us, we stuck with it, and especially on ‘Geeks,’ he [ends] up getting the game-winning goal anyway.”

Marchand scored an empty-net goal at 19:08 after skating down the left side for the 3-1 final.

“Through this whole streak, we’ve just talked and talked and talked about doing the right thing,” Sabres defenseman Connor Clifton said. “Obviously we got the loss, but we did a lot of good tonight. … We historically haven’t been a good back-to-back team, but we were ready to play tonight. Things are going to go wrong, and they did, but we got to find ways to be in those tight games.”

NOTES: Marchand became the third Bruins player to have a nine-game point streak at age 36 or older, joining Jean Ratelle (nine games in 1976-77) and Johnny Bucyk (nine games in 1974-75 & 1971-72)...Geekie has scored a goal in three of his past four games.