There would be no such crowd-stirring moment between the Sabres and Flyers, thanks in large part to the 22-year-old defenseman. The Flyers did manage an early goal - scored 1:16 into the contest by Kevin Hayes - but the Sabres calmly worked their way back to a 5-3 win.
Tage Thompson and Victor Olofsson each scored two goals. Anders Bjork added the other, while Rasmus Dahlin tallied a pair of assists to reach 50 points for the first time in his career.
The Sabres completed a sweep of their three-game season series with the Flyers. The two teams met in Buffalo on Saturday, a 4-3 win for the Sabres in which they erased a 2-0 deficit.
"I think we have confidence in our group where if we do give up the first goal it's not a panic or anything," Samuelsson said. "Just settle into our game and trust the process. It's a long game."
Samuelsson skated a career-high 26:05 and was credited with an assist, four shots, eight shot attempts, five hits, four blocked shots, and a plus-3 rating. He was among the players on the ice when the Flyers sent out an extra attacker during the final minutes, helping stave off the tying goal until Thompson scored into the empty net.
"He's a beast back there," Sabres coach Don Granato said.
Samuelsson has etched himself firmly into the Sabres' lineup since making his season debut in January, having exceeded 20 minutes of ice time in all but three games since the start of March. He might have been with the team from the get-go, had it not been for an injury he sustained during the opening game of the Prospects Challenge in September.
That injury, which cost Samuelsson the entirety of training camp, occurred while blocking a shot. He sustained another injury blocking a shot during a win in Toronto last Tuesday, forcing him to miss the following game against St. Louis.
"He missed a game blocking a shot from Auston Matthews, he would go right back out there and block it again," Granato said. "He has those warrior attributes that teams feed off, teammates feed off."