Sabres rewarded for strong defensive effort with OT win over Bruins

BOSTON – Coach Lindy Ruff emphasized the need for a patient, defensively sound approach in order for the Buffalo Sabres to reverse their fortunes on the road.

The Sabres responded with one of their more stringent efforts of the season, holding the Boston Bruins to 20 shots in a 3-2 overtime win at TD Garden on Monday.

Buffalo’s 17 shots allowed in regulation matched its lowest total of the season, previously set in a 6-2 win over Chicago at home on Dec. 27.

“I thought we played quick,” Ruff said. “We got out of the zone (in a) hurry. I thought we managed the puck really well.”

Alex Tuch deflected an Owen Power shot for the game-winning, power-play goal with 10.7 seconds remaining in overtime. The assist was the third point of the night for Power, who also assisted on Peyton Krebs’ power-play goal and added a goal of his own.

The victory snapped an eight-game road winless streak for the Sabres. With 10 of their final 17 games on the road, they opened their current four-game trip intent on replicating the identity that led to recent home wins over Vegas and Edmonton.

The recipe on Monday included strong special teams (2-for-4 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill) and physical pushback from Jordan Greenway, who fought 6-foot-6 defenseman Nikita Zadorov during the first period in response to an open-ice hit on Tage Thompson.

Buffalo was sound defensively save for a brief stretch during the back half of the first period, when Pavel Zacha and Morgan Geekie scored both Boston goals in a span of 2:13. Boston had just two high-danger chances during the final 40 minutes of regulation, including a David Pastrnak breakaway that was stopped by Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.

“I think we did a good job a lot of areas, really,” Power said. “We played in the O-zone quite a bit, we did good job with our gaps and killing plays in the D-zone. I think anytime you do all those three things, you’re gonna limit them and I think we did a good job of that tonight.”

Krebs opened the scoring just 4:19 into the game on Buffalo’s first power play of the night. Power initiated the play with a pass to Jack Quinn in the right circle, who made a quick pass to find Krebs all alone in the slot.

A series of penalties against Sam Lafferty for removing an opponent’s helmet in a net-front scrum and Connor Clifton for boarding resulted in 50 seconds of 5-on-3 play for the Bruins shortly after Krebs’ goal. The Sabres killed the penalties thanks in part to blocked shots by Mattias Samuelsson and Jacob Bryson.

Ruff felt the momentum gained from those power plays, however, set the stage for Boston’s two quick goals from Zacha and Geekie. Zacha’s goal came at the end of a long forechecking shift in the Buffalo end. Geekie scored by sneaking behind the Buffalo defense for a stretch pass.

“We had a heck of a kill,” Ruff said. “We had some guys that blocked some shots. It took a little while to recover. It gave them some energy in their own building. But I thought from the second period on again, we got right back on track.”

Power roofed a shot from the left faceoff circle to tie the game at 2-2 with 7:12 remaining in the second period. That score held until the final seconds of a chance-laden overtime, which finally ended on Tuch’s deflection in front of goaltender Joonas Korpisalo.

“I kind of threw one on net and got pretty lucky,” Power said. “Just trying to get something going there with time running out.”

The result was a much-needed road win, which the Sabres aim to make part of their identity – for the rest of this season and beyond.

“Just got to continue to build off this, play the right way, and good things will happen,” Krebs said.

Here’s more from the overtime win.

1. Greenway fought for the second consecutive game, having previously dropped the gloves against Vegas’ Keegan Kolesar on Saturday. He received the ceremonial vest from his teammates postgame as player of the game.

Greenway responded immediately following Zadorov’s hit on Thompson, which knocked the Sabres’ leading goal scorer to the ice seconds after he had passed away the puck.

“Greener was there all night,” Ruff said. “Zadorov’s a big man. And I thought it was a solid team effort, but Greeny automatically right there for us.”

2. The Sabres have now amassed four fighting majors in the last three games (along with six misconducts against Detroit last Wednesday).

“I think we don’t have to fight every time, but [their] guy's got to know that if he's gonna try to take out our top player that he's gonna get ran, too, and things are gonna happen like that,” Krebs said.

“We're just trying to play a hard game (and) not get pushed around. I think that's something we’re really trying to strive for.”

3. Ruff praised Krebs for his work ethic following the win over Vegas, during which he fought in response to a high hit on Jiri Kulich and backchecked to break up a potential empty-net goal.

Krebs has been rewarded with ice time in each of the last two overtimes as well as a consistent role on the power play, which he cashed in on Monday. He rotated from his position in the left circle to the slot to free himself for his power-play goal.

“I just want to play for the team, play for wins, and it's nice to get rewarded by Lindy,” Krebs said. “Just trying to listen to what he has to say and build my game off that. Just trying to get better every day, have a lot of fun and keep it up.”

4. Ryan McLeod also continues to get rewarded as the Sabres navigate injuries to their forward group. McLeod led Sabres forwards with a career-high 23:57 of ice time and extended his point streak to four games with the primary assist on Power’s goal.

5. With JJ Peterka (lower body), Josh Norris (undisclosed), and Kulich (concussion) all sidelined with injuries, recent call-up Brett Murray made his season debut on a line with Krebs and Quinn. The 6-foot-5 winger skated 11:20.

Up next

The road trip continues with the Sabres’ first-ever visit to Salt Lake City to play the Utah Hockey Club on Thursday. Coverage on MSG begins at 8:30 p.m. with puck drop scheduled for 9.