Kinkaid, Bruins hand Sabres fifth straight loss

BUFFALO -- Keith Kinkaid made 30 saves in his season debut, and Patrice Bergeron scored twice to help the Boston Bruins defeat the Buffalo Sabres 3-1 at KeyBank Center on Saturday.

Kinkaid signed a one-year contract with Boston on July 13 after making one NHL start last season (on Dec. 15) with the New York Rangers.
"I did all right, I guess," Kinkaid said with a laugh. "No, they came out early and often, so it was good to get into the game right away and see some far shots. We prevailed in the end. Not the best first two periods, but I just wanted to give my team a shot, and they did the rest."
Jakub Zboril scored his first NHL goal, and Brad Marchand had two assists for the Bruins (13-2-0), who have won three in a row.
Tage Thompson scored, and Craig Anderson made 27 saves for the Sabres (7-8-0), who have lost five in a row.
"Bitter taste in their mouths," Buffalo coach Don Granato said. "We've got a group that, I've said it before, they're not happy. It [ticks] them off. That's a really good thing for us, is we brought in competitive people. We know they're young, but we brought in competitive people for that reason.
"When this stuff happens, they don't like it. They want to fix it, and I think the silver lining is they know they can fix it. We need to keep gaining the experience to make the know-how knowledge."

Thompson scored short-handed to give Buffalo a 1-0 lead at 5:17 of the first period when he stripped David Pastrnak of the puck inside the Sabres' blue line, skated around David Krejci, and slid the puck past Kinkaid's left pad.
He has scored in three straight games (four goals) and has 10 goals in his past eight games.
"Tage is a one-man wrecking crew out there," Anderson said. "When the puck's on his stick, you know something explosive is going to happen. The guy is a unique player, and he's playing with a lot of confidence right now. It's fun to see. He's leading by example right now, going out there, working hard, creating stuff. Now it's up to everybody else to kind of follow suit."
The Sabres had an opportunity to add to their lead after defenseman Charlie McAvoy took consecutive penalties at 8:54 and 11:04 of the second period, but the Bruins' penalty kill limited them to three shots.
Bergeron then tied it 1-1 during a power play for Boston at 18:51, scoring with a backhand after a slap shot from Marchand caromed to him off Bruins forward Jake DeBrusk.
"Our penalty kill has been excellent all year long, and it's given us momentum," Boston coach Jim Montgomery said. "Our special teams lately have been carrying us because the power play came up with that goal to tie it up right at the end of the second period, which gave us momentum going into the third."
Zboril put Boston ahead 2-1 at 12:31 of the third period, scoring from above the left face-off circle off a pass from Tomas Nosek, who bumped Sabres forward Jack Quinn off the puck by the half wall.
"I just saw 'Nosey' carrying the puck and I think he tried to look me off, so I yelled at him and he gave me the puck," Zboril said. "I just shot it on net and it went in."

The defenseman, who was playing in his 65th NHL game, was selected by the Bruins in the first round (No. 13) of the 2015 NHL Draft.
"I waited long enough for it, and it feels good to finally be rewarded," he said.
Bergeron scored from the slot at 18:11 for the 3-1 final.
"You want to win every game," Thompson said. "We don't come into games just hoping we win. We're going out there to try to outplay them and I think we did for the most part. But they're a good hockey team. You give them an inch, they're going to take a mile. That's kind of what happened tonight.
"We played good for 55 minutes and then a little turnover in the [defensive] zone and they put it in the back of the net. They're opportunistic. You give them chances they're going to score. Most teams in the NHL, good teams are going to do that. … Like I said, it's just being consistent for a full 60."
NOTES: Zboril is the eighth Bruins player and first defenseman to have his first NHL goal be the game-winner. … Bergeron has played in 680 wins with Boston, passing Johnny Bucyk (679) for second in team history. Hall of Fame defenseman Ray Bourque is first (770). … The Sabres wore warmup jerseys for Hockey Fights Cancer Night, featuring the last names of cancer patients on the back. … Sabres captain Kyle Okposo did not play due to a lower-body injury. "Probably the best way to say it is it will be a few days of rest and then it will be day to day," Granato said after the game.