Khudobin makes 36 saves, Bruins blank Sabres

BUFFALO -- Anton Khudobin made 36 saves to lift the Boston Bruins to a 3-0 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Tuesday.
Khudobin, who made 17 saves in the first period, earned his first shutout of the season and the sixth of his NHL career.

"Tonight, I thought he seemed square, in control, not a lot bothering him, not a lot going on around him in terms of him not overplaying situations," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said of Khudobin, who had lost two starts in a row since a 4-3 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Nov. 24. "You know he's in a good place when that happens and he deserved it, he was full value for us."
WATCH: [All Bruins vs. Sabres highlights]
Jake DeBrusk, Tim Schaller and David Backes scored for Boston (17-10-5), which was coming off a 7-2 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday.
"In the third, on the road, in a back-to-back, usually a team's going to have a push -- and I don't want to be disrespectful -- but I don't know if they had a true sustained push," Cassidy said. "I mean, they had some shifts in our end, but I thought we managed the game very well in the third.
"... The rest of our game, I thought, is really coming along from the start of the year. That's one of the biggest differences: We're recognizing how to play in those situations and to settle down and play the right way."

Bruins forward David Pastrnak's point streak ended at 12 games, the longest in the NHL this season. He had 14 points (five goals, nine assists) during the streak.
DeBrusk gave Boston a 1-0 lead at 10:14 of the second period. He received a pass from Charlie McAvoy from the Bruins zone at the red line, skated into the Sabres zone and beat goalie Robin Lehner to the short side over his glove with a wrist shot from the right face-off dot.
"I just came across the blue (line) and tried to make a quick move and then get a shot through the [defenseman]," DeBrusk said. "It went where I wanted it to go. I didn't know if it went in until I heard it hit the bar, and as soon as I heard that, I knew I got good wood on it."
Schaller made it 2-0 with an empty-net goal with 1:51 left in the third period, and Backes scored another to make it 3-0 with 31 seconds remaining.

Lehner made 30 saves for the Sabres (8-19-7), who have lost three straight games (0-2-1) and five of their past six (1-2-3).
"It's unfortunate because [Lehner] played an excellent game, kept us in the game the whole time," left wing Benoit Pouliot said. "For us to pay him back we've got to put some pucks in the net. We got our chances, it's just a matter of finishing and we kind of let go in the second too, which kind of hurt us for the rest of the game."
Buffalo center Jacob Josefson returned to the lineup after missing the previous nine games with an ankle injury.

Goal of the game

DeBrusk's goal at 10:14 of the second period.

Save of the game

Khudobin stopping against Evander Kane's deflection shot at 9:47 of the second period.

Highlight of the game

Lehner's left-pad save against Brad Marchand at 7:19 of the second period.

They said it

"It's unbelievable. The sacrifice of the game, the sacrifice of what guys do, it's crucial. It's a really important moment. He got that first block and something happened again, and he came back and blocked another shot." -- Bruins goalie Anton Khudobin on forward Noel Acciari blocking two shots late in the third period
"You've got to stick to the game plan and eventually you'll break through, but it just seems that sometimes we're taking things into our own hands and it just keeps coming back at us. We've got to realize if we just stay with the course of our game plan, eventually it'll break. You'll get a good bounce, you'll get a shot off the shin pad, but we tend to do that and especially when we trend in a good direction, we get away from that. We're cracking." -- Sabres coach Phil Housley

Need to know

Bruins rookie forward Danton Heinen extended his point streak to four games (two goals, five assists) with an assist on Backes' goal. … The Sabres have been shut out in four of their past 11 games and have scored 17 goals in that span.

What's next

Bruins:Host the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; NESN, TSN3, NHL.TV)
Sabres: Host the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday (7 p.m. ET; SN, MSG-B, NBCSP, NHL.TV)