Sabres vs. Bruins - Game 5 | How to watch, lineup notes, and storylines

After taking care of business with two wins in Boston, the Buffalo Sabres lead the series 3-1 and have their first chance to finish off the Bruins. Game 5 is Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at KeyBank Center, and a win would send Buffalo to the second round.

The Sabres are coming off a Game 4 win where everything went their way. They overwhelmed the Bruins in an early four-goal outburst, which coach Lindy Ruff called their best period of the season, then coasted to a 6-1 final.

• Game 4 takeaways | In top form, Sabres have their way with Bruins
• Top quotes | Sabres look ahead to Game 5 opportunity

But Buffalo doesn’t expect anything to come easily in Game 5, with the Bruins fighting for their season and hoping to respond to Sunday’s performance.

“That’s your biggest challenge: Your desperation has to exceed theirs, knowing that they have nothing to lose anymore,” Ruff said. “Sometimes when there’s nothing to lose, you can create enough chaos and enough passion that it makes it extremely hard for the team that’s trying to close it out to win a game.”

“It’s a cliché,” echoed goalie Alex Lyon, “but the fourth one is genuinely hardest to get. … They’re going to be extremely hungry. They beat us once in our building, so they know the taste and the recipe. We just have to be prepared for that.”

Here are all the details before puck drop.

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How to watch

TV (Buffalo broadcast market): MSG (Pregame/postgame shows streaming on Buffalo Sabres App)

Streaming (Buffalo broadcast market): Gotham Sports App / Fubo TV

TV (national): TNT, truTV

Streaming (national): HBO Max

Radio: WGR 550 / Buffalo Sabres App

Lineup notes (updated 7:10 p.m.)

The Sabres are rolling with the same lineup from the last couple games. That includes forwards Jason Zucker and Tyson Kozak, who exited Game 4 with minor injuries. Josh Norris remains out despite participating in the morning skate.

Alex Lyon makes a third straight start in goal.

Here’s the full projected lineup:

Series stats through Game 4

Notable numbers

• Bowen Byram and Peyton Krebs are tied for the NHL lead these playoffs with a plus-seven rating.
• Krebs (2+3) and Owen Power (0+4) both have four-game point streaks to start their playoff careers. They joined Danny Gare (1975, 7 games), as the only players in Sabres history to accomplish that.
• With a goal, Byram would become the seventh defenseman ever with a four-game playoff goal streak. He’d also be the seventh Sabre (any position) with a goal in four straight playoff games.
• The line of Krebs, Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch has outscored opponents 4-0 at 5-on-5 in the series (Natural Stat Trick).
• The line of Zach Benson, Noah Ostlund and Josh Doan has outshot opponents 12-4 and outscored them 2-0 at 5-on-5.
• The pair of Byram and Power has outscored opponents 6-2.

The Bruins’ side

Bruins coach Marco Sturm had a blunt assessment of the Game 4 blowout when he addressed the media postgame: “I am embarrassed; we all should be. We are all pissed.”

In losing both games on home ice, Boston got no points from top forwards like David Pastrnak, Morgan Geekie, Pavel Zacha or Elias Lindholm. The hard-hitting fourth line of Tanner Jeannot, Mark Kastelic and Sean Kuraly has been the Bruins’ most effective for much of the series.

Winger Viktor Arvidsson, who scored twice in Game 2, will miss Game 5 with an upper-body injury, and Lukas Reichel is a scratch. Michael Eyssimont and Alex Steeves enter the lineup in their places as the Bruins shuffle their top three lines. And former Sabre Henri Jokiharju will make his playoff debut in place of defenseman Jordan Harris.

Pregame sound

Ruff on the challenge of Game 5: "I think we've responded to all the challenges from the start of the year. After Game 2, we responded. I think we know that they're going to bring their best. They're in a situation where, again, they've got to be desperate. They're going to be all-in in every situation. But I really felt after Game 2 we were kind of in the same situation. We needed to respond, we needed to play better. We did. Game 4, I thought we played even better. We talked about it, there's areas of the game we really feel we can still ramp it up."

Benson on what to expect from the Bruins: "They're going to come out flying. We know that. The fourth one's always the hardest to win. Clinching games in any sport are always the hardest. We know that and we're gonna come prepared. We're going to try to get to our game as early as possible."