Luukkonen laments miscue on ‘bad bounce’ for Sabres in Game 2 loss

BUFFALO -- Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen didn’t shy away from the blame.

The Buffalo Sabres goalie put it on himself for not properly reading the puck when Boston Bruins forward Morgan Geekie flipped it on his backhand from center ice into the Buffalo zone.

It took a bounce in front of Luukkonen and hopped over his glove into the net to put the Bruins ahead by two at 16:29 of the second period in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference First Round at KeyBank Center on Tuesday.

Boston went on to win 4-2 to even the best-of-7 series 1-1.

“Just a bad bounce and a goal, of course, the second one there. Of course, that’s my fault,” Luukkonen said. “There’s no way around it; you’ve just got to do better with those. But I feel like the biggest thing for me, personally, is that in those situations, if there’s a bad bounce, bad goal, you have to stop the bleeding. But I wasn’t able to do that tonight.”

Luukkonen said he was trying to get to the puck before it bounced, but instead let it bounce in front of him.

“It’s a bad bounce, but there’s no way around it: It can’t go in,” he said.

Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff wasn’t putting it all on his goalie.

“That’s a lucky goal,” he said. “Over the years, you see goals like that took a little bit of a hard right when it landed, ends up going in. This team has been so good about (how) we win together, we lose together. I'm not going to sit here and criticize that goal.”

Pavel Zacha scored again for Boston less than two minutes later, and Viktor Arvidsson added his second goal of the game 16 seconds into the third period to make it 4-0, chasing Luukkonen from the net.

“When you kind of start to question yourself and stuff like that, then you get the bad bounces,” Luukkonen said. “It’s unfortunate but got to play through it.”

Ruff opted to keep Luukkonen in net to start the third, but replaced him with Alex Lyon after the fourth goal.

“Just felt that there may be a chance we're going to need him,” Ruff said. “May play next game, but just get him a period of play, because he hasn't played in a while. When (Arvidsson) scores there, it's an opportunity to get him a little bit of action.”

After spending most of the season in a rotation with Lyon, Luukkonen established himself as the Sabres’ No. 1 goalie when the NHL returned following the break for the 2026 Winter Olympics. He had earned a spot on the Finland roster, but a lower-body injury sustained on Jan. 27 forced him to withdraw from the opportunity to represent his country.

Luukkonen went 11-2-1 with a 2.21 goals-against average and .920 save percentage down the stretch to help the Sabres to the Atlantic Division title. He finished the regular season 22-9-3 with a 2.52 GAA, .910 save percentage and one shutout in 35 games (34 starts).

As the series shifts to Boston for Games 3 and 4, Luukkonen knows he has to put Game 2 behind him.

“For me, personally, of course, I have to be ready for that game,” he said. “They don’t necessarily shoot too many pucks; they kind of just wait for their chance and flip high pucks behind our team. So, just taking the lessons away from these first two games and knowing how they play. We just have to be ready for it.”