An early third period goal by Rasmus Ristolainen helped Buffalo push the contest versus Boston into overtime and allowed the Sabres to claim a 2-1 victory in the shootout on Wednesday night in the TD Garden.
In the early minutes of the opening period Buffalo was able to hold off Boston as they killed off the Cody Hodgson tripping minor.
At the 9:55 mark of the first period the Bruins broke the deadlock as Loui Eriksson tallied his 18th goal off of assists by Adam McQuaid and Carl Soderberg. Eriksson tallied five shots on the evening and finished a +1 for the contest.
In the second period, both teams exchanged penalties as Phil Varone was called for hooking at the 6:05 mark. With three seconds remaining in the second period, Soderberg was tagged with a holding minor to place the Sabres on the powerplay heading into the third period.
On the ensuing power play, Ristolainen was able to find the back of the net 1:23 into the period. It was his fifth goal on the campaign, coming off assists by captain Brian Gionta and Johan Larsson.
The Sabres were given another opportunity on the man advantage as Patrice Bergeron was called for hooking at the 7:06 mark into the third period. Bergeron’s penalty was the only penalty in the third period by either squad.
For the Blue and Gold in the third period, they tallied 11 shots on frame compared to the 10 they added in the first two periods of the contests. Boston added 12 third period shots to stack onto the 26 in the first two periods.
In overtime the Sabres fought off the Bruins multiple times while yielding seven shots, all stopped by Anders Lindback. Buffalo tallied three shots in the five-minute extra frame.
Boston elected to shoot first in the shootout and led off with Bergeron who was stopped by Lindback. Buffalo matched with Tyler Ennis, who slotted it passed Boston goaltender Niklas Svedberg.
In the second round, Boston sent out Brad Marchand who failed to convert against Lindback. Buffalo returned the favor with Gionta who also was stopped on his attempt. In the third attempt, the Bruins’ Torey Krug was unable to get his shot past Lindback, which sealed the victory for the Sabres.
Lindback finished with 44 saves on 45 shots while Svedberg stopped 23-of-24 in the loss.
Buffalo returns to action on March 20 versus the New Jersey Devils at 7 p.m. inside the First Niagara Center.