BOSTON – Mattias Samuelsson, having broken his stick, was essentially helpless as he tried to get the puck out of his own zone. The Buffalo Sabres defenseman tried kicking it out, but that only made matters worse.
Viktor Arvidsson quickly grabbed the puck and made a beeline for Sabres goalie Alex Lyon. As the Swede roared in, captain Rasmus Dahlin slashed him, giving the Bruins a penalty shot as they enjoyed a 1-0 lead 9:50 into Thursday’s second period.
If Arvidsson beat Lyon, the Bruins would’ve gone up two goals for the third straight contest and possibly broken Game 3 of the first-round playoff series wide open.
But Lyon got a piece of Arvidsson’s shot with his blocker, keeping the deficit at one goal and making what Sabres coach Lindy Ruff called “probably the save of the night.”
“Definitely a turning a point,” Ruff after the Sabres’ 3-1 win gave them a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. “I mean, really bad luck. … You break a stick and can’t do anything with the puck. And he came up with a huge save for us at a crucial time of the game.”
Lyon said he tries “not to overthink the penalty shot.”
“Just try to kind of be in the moment, and that’s when practice comes through,” he said. “So you’ve just got to trust your instincts and lean on those.”
Sixty-eight seconds later, Sabres defenseman Bowen Byram connected on rookie center Noah Ostlund’s slick feed from below the goal line, one-timing the puck past goalie Jeremy Swayman from the right circle.
The goal marked the first time in the series the Sabres scored before the third period.
“Honestly, he kind of surprised me a bit there,” Byram said. “I wasn’t sure he was going to get it thorough it me. Unreal pass by him, for sure.”
Winger Alex Tuch scored the go-ahead goal 4:03 into the third period, beating a screened Swayman from the left circle and giving the Sabres just their second lead of the series.
The Sabres grinded out the final minutes, killing two late penalties and getting some critical stops from Lyon.
Ostlund, who made his NHL postseason debut after recovering from an upper-body injury, sealed the game with an empty-net goal.
The Sabres, who struggled and fell behind four goals in Tuesday’s 4-2 home loss, bounced back and looked more like themselves Thursday before a capacity crowd of 17,850 noisy fans in TD Garden.
“Our speed and our pace of play and the way our defense were involved, that is our game, and it starts with moving the puck,” Ruff said. “We made tape-to-tape passes. That generates a lot of speed.”
Inserting Lyon, who replaced a wonky Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, and Ostlund, who missed 12 games, helped buoy the Sabres.
Lyon looked sharp all night, making 24 saves in just his sixth career appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Coincidentally, three of those games came during the Florida Panthers’ stunning first-round upset of the Bruins in 2023.
“Definitely some familiar feels … just like the bus ride and stuff like that,” said Lyon, who replaced Luukkonen on Tuesday but hadn’t started a game since April 4.
Ostlund, meanwhile, pivoted Zach Benson and Josh Doan and also skated on the second power-play unit. If the Sabres had fewer penalties, Ruff said Ostlund likely would’ve earned more ice time. He played 14 minutes, 18 seconds.
“The compete, he went in there every single shift, made a difference every single shift, and he was phenomenal tonight,” Tuch said.
The Swede sealed the victory by beating two Bruins to the puck to negate a possible icing before spinning around and putting the puck between winger David Pastrnak’s legs.
“I saw Pastrnak backchecking pretty hard,” Ostlund said. “I tried to fake him and it went in.”
The youngster’s effort to get down the ice and outmuscle two opponents impressed Ruff.
“The scouting report on Pastrnak when he’s in goal is you’ve got to go five-hole,” he joked.
Other than the power play, which is scoreless in five tries (one attempt was just nine seconds) and is now zero of its last 36, including 15 attempts in the postseason, the Sabres enjoyed a terrific night.
The Sabres, who won’t skate today, have a chance to take a commanding series lead Sunday afternoon.
“We have to be ready to put this game away and get ready for a really desperate team on Sunday in their building,” Ruff said. “Just the same way they have to put the game away and know that they’ve got to battle and bounce back.
“It’s something that our guys, some of them, haven’t been through, but they’ve got a little bit of a taste of it.”
