Zacha scores in OT, Bruins rally past Sabres

BUFFALO – Pavel Zacha scored 38 seconds into overtime for the Boston Bruins in a 4-3 overtime win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Wednesday.

David Pastrnak carried the puck into the zone and dished to Zacha, who scored from the left circle.

“I was just trying to keep the speed, try to swing a couple of times,” Zacha said. “Didn’t see kind of an entrance there. Then one time I saw that can probably catch a guy, and ‘Pasta’ made a great play under the stick and I just saw the goalie moving so I tried to shoot it kind of low, and it worked out.”

Pastrnak had a goal and two assists and extended his point streak to 11 games (18 points; seven goals, 11 assists). 

“He’s our guy,” Boston coach Marco Sturm said. “I’m not saying he needs to deliver and be the difference and be the goal-scorer every night, but he needs to be the driver. I feel like when he does it, we all feel it.”

Zacha also had an assist, and Viktor Arvidsson and Casey Mittelstadt also scored for the Bruins (40-24-8), who have won three of four. Joonas Korpisalo made 22 saves.

Boston holds the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, three points ahead of the Ottawa Senators. Boston is tied in points with the Montreal Canadiens for third in the Atlantic Division but has played two more games.

“Just a great effort,” Sturm said. “Obviously we’re very happy to grab those two points. Huge, huge points, but I liked the response even better (after a 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday). The guys, we were not happy, all of us. I would say we were tight in the first 10 minutes (against Buffalo) but after that I think we found our game.”

Jason Zucker scored twice and Tage Thompson had two assists for the Sabres (44-20-8). Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 27 saves.

“I don’t think we were very good tonight. I don’t think we played our game,” Zucker said. “I think we tried to be a little bit too fancy. We didn’t keep it simple. It’s nice to get a point out of it, especially when you’re not at your best. It would’ve been nice to defend the lead a little bit better than we did.”

Buffalo, which leads the Atlantic, tied the Carolina Hurricanes for first place in the Eastern Conference. Carolina has a game in hand.

“Obviously it’s a big point and could have been a big two points again,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “Crazy bounce (on the Bruins’ tying goal), but sometimes the crazy stuff happens to you when you don’t play well. Even though we played a good third period, sometimes the payoff is something bad will happen to you and it happened.”

The Sabres scored twice in 33 seconds in the third period to take a 3-2 lead.

Zach Benson stripped Mason Lohrei of the puck at the Bruins blue line, skated to the net and stopped in front before putting it past Korpisalo’s right skate to tie it 2-2 at 5:21 of the third period.

“I felt that I could get pressure on him, maybe steal it,” Benson said. “And luckily, I was on the right end of stealing the puck.”

Lohrei cross-checked Benson after the goal, and on the ensuing power play Zucker put Buffalo ahead 3-2 at 5:54. Thompson looped around the net and sent a pass through the crease to Zucker on the doorstep in front. 

Mittelstadt tied it 3-3 at 14:00. Jonathan Aspirot’s point shot bounced off the end boards, then off Luukkonen’s skate in the crease to Mittelstadt, who kicked it to his stick from in front to put it in.

“It was a weird bounce and kind of ended up there with kind of an empty net, so we’ll take as many of those as we can get, for sure,” Mittelstadt said.

Pastrnak gave Boston a 1-0 lead at 11:07 of the first period. He received a pass from Fraser Minten low in the right circle and snapped it over Luukkonen’s stick and off the far post.

Zucker scored on the power play to tie it 1-1 at 15:18. Thompson skated around Marat Khusnutdinov to the left circle where he slipped a pass through Hampus Lindholm’s legs to Zucker at the left hash marks.

Arvidsson made it 2-1 when he backhanded a loose puck under Luukkonen’s arm from in front at 9:45 after the goalie poke-checked it away from Pastrnak.

NOTES: Pastrnak reached 60 assists for a third straight season, tying him with Marc Savard for the fourth-longest such streak in Boston history. … Mittelstadt, selected by Buffalo at No. 8 in the 2017 NHL Draft and played his first seven NHL seasons with the Sabres, played his 500th NHL game. … Sabres defenseman Conor Timmins played 15:30 and had two shots on goal, two hits and blocked two shots in his return after missing 38 games with a broken leg. … Carolina Matovac, Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin’s fiancée who had an emergency heart transplant last summer, was in attendance for her first game after returning to Buffalo earlier in the week. The Sabres welcomed her back with an introduction on the video board.