Sabres edge Bruins in Game 3, take lead in Eastern 1st Round

BOSTON -- Alex Tuch scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period for the Buffalo Sabres, who defeated the Boston Bruins 3-1 in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference First Round at TD Garden on Thursday.

Buffalo scored three consecutive goals after falling behind in the second period.

“This is not an easy arena to play in,” Tuch said. “They’ve had a lot of success at home this year. It’s been challenging for our team throughout the season the couple games we came in and played. We wanted that mindset of coming in and just going to work right away, no matter what happens. They score one or two goals, we’ve just got to keep working, keep going. 

“We have a lot of faith, a lot of confidence in our group. We know we can bury a couple goals, and we’re going to keep pushing toward that. But we just had to make sure we were playing good defense tonight and matching their intensity. I thought we did a good job of that.”

The Sabres lead the series 2-1. Game 4 will be here Sunday (2 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, NESN, MSG-B, SN, TVAS).

Bowen Byram and Noah Ostlund each had a goal and assist, and Alex Lyon made 24 saves in his first start of the series for Buffalo, the No. 1 seed in the Atlantic Division.

Lyon replaced Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen at 16 seconds of the third period in Game 2, a 4-2 Boston victory, and stopped all seven shots he faced. Luukkonen allowed seven goals on 40 shots in the first two games.

“Getting in for a few minutes (in Game 2) was really helpful,” Lyon said after his first start since April 4. “Before that it was probably two weeks since I’ve played, so to get the feel of the game set me up nicely for today. We came in with a great mindset and you could feel it in the room that we were going to send it for 60 minutes, and that’s all you can do. We did a really good job of that and we were engaged right from the start. 

“I felt confident. That’s what you’re searching for, and the team gave me confidence. We played desperately, so it was good.”

Ostlund, a rookie forward making his Stanley Cup Playoff debut, had been sidelined since March 25 with an upper-body injury.

“He hasn’t played a game in a couple of weeks, and it’s his first-ever playoff hockey game in his rookie year and the guy gets one (goal) and one (assist). That’s special,” Tuch said. “His hockey IQ is off the charts. The skill is off the charts, but honestly his compete, he went in there and competed every single shift and made a difference every single shift. He was phenomenal tonight.”

Tanner Jeannot scored, and Jeremy Swayman made 25 saves for Boston, the first wild card from the East.

“It’s a playoff game and we’ve got to capitalize on mistakes and stuff’s going to be magnified,” Swayman said. “Our job now is to take it one moment at a time and understand we have to recover and we have home ice again in (three) days.”

Tuch gave the Sabres a 2-1 lead at 4:03. After Buffalo kept the puck in the offensive zone on the forecheck, Tuch gathered it at the top of the left face-off circle and beat a screened Swayman with a wrist shot that went over the glove and into the top right corner.

“We had good motion inside the zone,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. “We won a couple of battles, and we did a lot better job of moving our feet on the walls, and not getting trapped on the walls. (Tuch) came off the wall and Tage (Thompson) did a great job in front of their goaltender, and those are the type of goals we need to score.”

Ostlund added an empty-net goal at 18:36 for the 3-1 final.

“He played a real solid game for us,” Ruff said. “It was a little disjointed with all the penalties, so I would’ve liked to see him play a little bit more because he was going so good. For a first playoff game with us, he gets an A-plus.”

The Sabres went 4-for-4 on the penalty kill, including denying the Bruins on two power plays 46 seconds apart in the third. Lyon made a pad save on Pavel Zacha’s one-timer from the right circle with 4:25 left during the second of those man-advantages.

“We weren’t happy with our first couple of kills,” Ruff said. “We lost a little bit of our positioning and gave them a couple of big opportunities. We went through those after the first period and those last two kills were excellent. We made it tough, and we got a couple of great blocks.”

A strong forecheck by the Bruins’ fourth line led to Boston taking a 1-0 lead at 3:26 of the second. With the Sabres forced to clear the puck, Charlie McAvoy quickly retrieved it deep in the defensive zone, eluded a defender and moved it along the wall to Jeannot, who entered the zone and took a wrist shot from the top of the left circle that beat Lyon short side.

It was Jeannot’s first playoff goal in his 19th postseason game.

“It was a good, heavy shift with good hits,” Jeannot said. “We were playing a simple game all night long and it was nice to see one go in, but I would rather have the win.”

Bruins forward Viktor Arvidsson was awarded a penalty shot at 9:50 after being slashed by Rasmus Dahlin on a breakaway, but his attempt went wide of the net.

The Sabres then tied it 1-1 at 10:58. Ostlund carried the puck below the goal line on the left side and made a saucer pass to Byram, who quickly shot from the right circle. The puck ricocheted off the stick of Bruins forward James Hagens and rose over Swayman’s left shoulder.

“It was definitely a turning point,” Ruff said of the penalty shot. 

Boston understands it needs to respond Sunday or it could be facing elimination when the series shifts back to Buffalo for Game 5 on Tuesday.

“We need to put this one behind us,” Bruins coach Marco Sturm said. “We’ll address it the next few days, the areas where we can be better and we’ve got to bounce back. We’ve done it all year long and that’s going to be the biggest message. Nothing really changes. We did it in Buffalo. We did it all season long. We always bounce back and we’re still in a really good spot.”

NOTES: Ostlund became the fourth rookie in Sabres history to record multiple points in his first career playoff game. The others: Pierre Turgeon (two goals, one assist in Game 1 of the 1988 Adams Division Semifinals against the Bruins), Richard Smehlik (two assists in Game 1 of the 1993 Adams Division Semifinals against the Bruins) and Bill Stewart (two assists in Game 1 of the 1978 Preliminary Round against the New York Rangers). ... Lyon became the second goaltender in Sabres history to make a penalty-shot save in the playoffs, joining Dominik Hasek (three). ... Tuch scored his second game-winning goal of the postseason. … McAvoy (assist) became the sixth defenseman in Bruins history with 50 playoff points. He has six goals and 44 assists in 94 postseason games.