BUFFALO – Since the Sabres began their torrid run up the Eastern Conference standings in early December, they’ve played 143 periods. The first two in Wednesday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins rank as their worst of the memorable stretch.
“Those first two periods are probably our poorest periods of the last three months,” coach Lindy Ruff said following the Sabres’ second consecutive overtime loss.
Fresh off a four-game road trip in which they went 3-0-1, the Sabres struggled for 40 minutes, losing too many battles and making poor puck decisions.
The home team, of course, sometimes looks sluggish in its first game following a long trip out west.
“I don’t think that has anything to do with sluggish,” Ruff said. “That has a lot to do with will power and making sure you win your battles.”
In the first period, Ruff said the Sabres did not win enough. In the second period, he said they handed the Bruins scoring chances. Not surprisingly, they began the third period trailing 2-1.
Then as they often have throughout the past several months, the Sabres settled down and roared back into the contest.
“The third period, I thought we got back to playing our game,” he said. “Went north, put the puck in the right place, had a good power play, created turnovers. We didn’t give up anything.”
Winger Zach Benson began the Sabres’ rally, grabbing the puck from Mason Lohrei at the Boston blue line and tying the game on a breakaway at 5:21. Lohrei cross-checked Benson after he the goal, earning a penalty.
Winger Jason Zucker scored his second power-play goal of the night 33 seconds later, igniting the capacity crowd of 19,070 fans in KeyBank Center. Incredibly, the Sabres have held a lead in 28 straight games.
“That’s how we should play the whole game,” Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin said. “We came out way better in the third. We started keeping it simple, started winning battles. We started to play our game.”
Still, the Sabres, who roared back from a late two-goal deficit Sunday in Anaheim and grabbed the lead, frittered away another lead.
Old friend Casey Mittelstadt tied the game at 14:00, beating goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in front after the puck bounced off the glass behind the net.
Pavel Zacha scored from the left circle 38 seconds into overtime.
The Sabres, who lost 6-5 in overtime to the Ducks, have dropped two straight games for just the third time since Dec. 9.
“I don’t think we were very good tonight,” Zucker said. “I don’t think we played our game. I think we tried to be a little bit too fancy. We didn’t keep it simple. It’s nice to get a point out of it, especially when you’re not at your best.”
Early in the game, the crowd roared when the Sabres welcomed Carolina Matovac, Dahlin’s fiancée, to her first game this season.
Matovac has been rehabbing after experiencing major heart failure and undergoing a heart transplant in the summer. Dahlin left the team twice earlier in the season to visit her in Sweden.
“Unbelievable, the support we’ve had for a long time now,” Dahlin said. “She’s getting this today, it was special, for sure.”
