At the Horn | Bruins 3 - Sabres 1

The Buffalo Sabres allowed just 19 shots and carried a tied game deep into the third period, but Morgan Geekie’s power-play goal with 1:45 remaining propelled the Boston Bruins to a 3-1 victory at TD Garden on Saturday.

Geekie scored with one second remaining on Boston’s third power play of the night. Brad Marchand added an empty-net goal during the final minute.

Charlie Coyle opened the scoring for the Bruins on a first-period breakaway, but JJ Peterka’s power-play goal evened the score at 1-1 late in the second.

James Reimer made 16 saves for the Sabres. Joonis Korpisalo stopped 19 shots for the Bruins.

The Sabres were without captain Rasmus Dahlin, who did not dress after skating a team-high 27:33 in his return from a seven-game absence on Friday. Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said the absence was planned as to not play Dahlin on back-to-back nights.

The loss extended the Sabres’ winless streak to 13 games at 0-10-3.

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Period

The Sabres were unsuccessful on two power plays in the period, the first of which set the table for Coyle’s goal to open the scoring for the Bruins 8:15 into the contest.

Coyle received the puck for a breakaway as he exited the penalty box. Reimer made the initial save with his left skate but Coyle, while down on the ice, continued to swat at the puck until he eventually pushed it past the goal line.

Buffalo finished the period with an 8-6 lead in shots.

Second period

The Sabres successfully killed two penalties to stay within one, then tied the game on Peterka’s power-play goal with 1:37 remaining in the period.

Peterka’s goal was preceded by a long shift spent in the Boston end that saw the Sabres generate four shot attempts in a span of a minute, cycling the puck around tired Bruins defenders in the meantime. When the Bruins finally escaped the zone, Peyton Krebs drew a hooking penalty against Oliver Wahlstrom at the opposite end.

On the ensuing power play, Jason Zucker pressured the Bruins into a turnover that ended up on Peterka’s stick in the slot. Peterka beat Korpisalo to his blocker side for his second goal in the past two games.

Third Period

A successful offside challenge by the Sabres erased a goal from Geekie and kept the game tied with 12:37 remaining, but Geekie went on to score the winner later in the period.

Sam Lafferty was attempting to play a bouncing puck in the defensive zone when his stick got tangled with Wahlstrom, resulting in a tripping penalty. The Sabres came within one second of their third successful penalty kill of the night before Geekie scored on a high shot from the slot. Justin Brazeau collided with Reimer as he attempted to make the save, but Brazeau had been pushed toward the goal by Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson.

Brad Marchand added an empty-net goal with 51.5 seconds remaining.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS

POSTGAME SOUND

UP NEXT

The Sabres play their final game ahead of the holiday break against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Monday. Coverage on MSG begins at 7 p.m. with puck drop scheduled for 7:30.