Sabres don’t find their game until 3rd, lose again in OT

The Buffalo Sabres lost 4-3 in overtime to the Boston Bruins on Wednesday at KeyBank Center, with Pavel Zacha ending it 38 seconds into the 3-on-3 period.

Though they mounted their second straight third-period comeback to collect another point in the standings, the Sabres weren’t happy with their play for much of the night.

Buffalo passed out of some quality scoring chances, didn’t play with enough speed and lost too many puck battles for its liking, especially in the first two periods. One of those plays, a failed clear of the defensive zone, gave Boston a 2-on-0 break and a 2-1 lead through 40 minutes.

“Those first two periods were probably our poorest periods of the last three months,” said coach Lindy Ruff. “… You’re playing a team that’s battling as hard as it can to stay in the playoff picture. They won more battles.”

“I think this was a learning game for us, for sure,” added captain Rasmus Dahlin. “Tomorrow, we have to really go through what happened. We can’t play this way for two periods.”

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 21 saves between those first two periods (and 27 in the game), and he was a key reason the Sabres were within striking distance.

Then, a third-period spark came from a familiar face in recent games: Zach Benson. In the final seconds of a Bruins power play, the winger pressured Mason Lohrei into a turnover and scored on a breakaway to tie the game. Benson absorbed a retaliatory cross check into the net from Lohrei, and Jason Zucker scored the go-ahead goal 33 seconds later on the ensuing power play.

Benson has made huge plays each of the last three third periods: a game-winning assist in Los Angeles, a go-ahead goal in Anaheim and now the tying tally against Boston. And he’s taken a big hit to make two of those plays happen.

“Obviously, never love getting cross checked from behind, but that's sometimes the price you’ve got to pay,” said Benson, who’s up to 10 goals this season. “And I'd definitely do it again.

“… I want to help this team as much as I can. I think we've had a good run here lately, and obviously we want to keep it going. It's starting to get to an important time of the year, and you always want to be playing your best at this time.”

A fortunate rebound off the end boards allowed Boston’s Casey Mittelstadt to tie it with six minutes remaining, so Buffalo headed to overtime for a second straight game. There, Zacha won the opening faceoff, and the Sabres never possessed the puck before he scored to end it.

Trail after two periods, take the lead, lose the lead, walk away with just one point – this all had a similar feel to Sunday’s game in Anaheim, and the Sabres have now lost consecutive games for just the third time since early December. As they have for months, they fully expect to shake off these losses and finish the regular season strong. Ten games remain before the playoffs.

“We’re losing no confidence in this room,” Benson said. “We’re a confident team up one, down one, tied. We’re a confident team no matter what. Unfortunately it’s happened back to back games, but it hasn’t happened much this year, and we’ll definitely fix that.”

Here’s more from the loss.

Carolina returns to Buffalo

Dahlin’s fiancée, Carolina, is back in Buffalo after recovering from last summer’s emergency heart transplant. She attended Wednesday’s game and received a warm welcome back from the KeyBank Center crowd.

“Unbelievable, the support we’ve had for a long time now,” Dahlin said. “[Her] getting this today, it was special, for sure.”

Zucker and Tage on the PP

Zucker scored his 21st and 22nd goals of the season, both on the power play and both on great feeds from Tage Thompson.

On the first one, Thompson deked around Marat Khusnutdinov up high, skated low and fed Zucker for a one-timer at the hashmark. On the second, Thompson curled behind the net and found an uncovered Zucker in front.

“He’s world class for a reason, and he made two great plays,” Zucker said.

Ruff and his staff made some adjustments to the top unit after Sunday’s 0-for-3 showing, promoting Jack Quinn and using Thompson as more of a rover. The unit has been most successful when it’s gotten the puck down toward the goal line, and both Zucker goals provided good examples.

“Move Tommer around a little bit,” Ruff said. “Use him in the bumper, try to get him up high on top of the circle. Try to get him in different places where they’ve got to try to find him. And let those guys operate low.”

Timmins returns

Defenseman Conor Timmins was back in the lineup for the first time since breaking his leg Dec. 18, starting in Zach Metsa’s place on the third pair. He skated 15:30 with two shots, two hits and two blocks.

Timmins also played 2:17 shorthanded, working alongside Mattias Samuelsson on the first unit. Those guys were excellent together early in the season, leading the NHL’s best penalty kill before Timmins’ injury.

“He was rock solid,” Ruff said. “We gave him a little extra time. I thought he skated well. Every puck decision he made, I thought was real good. Got the puck down the ice penalty killing, made the right play, got pucks out of the zone. Played like he hadn’t missed a day.”

Postgame sound

Up next

The Sabres host another wild card contender in the Detroit Red Wings on Friday at 7 p.m., with MSG’s pregame coverage starting at 6:30.

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