BOSTON – Alex Lyon's eyes tracked Viktor Arvidsson, as he collected the puck, as he swung to Lyon’s left, as he skated through the right circle – Lyon slipping out of his crease in Arvidsson’s direction – and, eventually, as the Boston Bruins forward tried to snap the puck on net.
He missed wide. The penalty shot was no good.
It had started when Mattias Samuelsson snapped his stick on a clearing attempt, then tried to kick the puck, with Arvidsson collecting it and heading toward the Buffalo Sabres net. On his way, Rasmus Dahlin slashed him. He was awarded a penalty shot at 9:50 of the second period, with the Bruins already up a goal.
“It was big, could have been a turning point in the game, but ‘Lyno’ made a great save,” defenseman Bowen Byram said. “(Lyon) made a few really, really good saves tonight. Definitely had his best performance for us, which we appreciate.”
Sixty-eight seconds after the failed penalty shot, the game was tied, courtesy of a goal by Byram.
The swing was massive.
The Sabres would go on to beat the Bruins, 3-1, in Game 3 on Thursday at TD Garden, which put them ahead 2-1 in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference First Round series.
“I think there’s two ways you can look at it: It’s a big lift for us, or because of a tough break, they end up scoring and they go up 2-0,” Ruff said, alluding to Samuelsson’s stick breaking. “It’s just a huge momentum swing, one direction or the other. So, I mean, that save is probably the save of the night.”
When Lyon was asked about his mindset on the penalty shot, Alex Tuch, sitting next to him, piped up, “Don’t give away your tips.”
Lyon didn’t.
“I try not to think the penalty shot too much,” the goalie said. “Kind of the same situation as the shootout. Just try to be in the moment and that’s when practice comes through. You’ve just got to trust your instincts and lean on those.”
But the fact that it was Lyon in net, and not Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who had started the first two games of the series, was both a fluke and a result of a season-long rotation by Ruff. It was Luukkonen’s net, until it wasn’t, until he allowed a bad goal to Morgan Geekie from the red line in Game 2, and was pulled after his fourth goal allowed 16 seconds into the third period.
Lyon was up.
“I can tell you this: We’ve used three goalies all year,” Ruff said before the game. “I think some people thought it was a little unusual that we alternated. The cool thing about our team is that we haven’t relied on one guy. We haven’t relied on one goalie. We’ve had a lot of different players help us get to where we are. We know we’re a good team because of the depth of our goaltending. We know we’re a good team because of the depth of our forwards. It isn’t about one person.”
