BUFFALO – Coach Lindy Ruff said forwards Josh Norris, Tyson Kozak and Jason Zucker are all still being evaluated but probable on Tuesday for Game 5 of the Sabres’ first-round playoff series against the Boston Bruins.
The Sabres lead the best-of-seven series 3-1. If they win, they will clinch their first series since 2007.
Norris has missed the last two games with an undisclosed injury. Kozak and Zucker both left Sunday afternoon’s 6-1 win in Boston with undisclosed injuries in the third period.
The Sabres did not practice Monday. Ruff, however, said Norris would skate.
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With the Bruins facing elimination, Ruff said he expects the Sabres to have “the hardest game that we’re going to have to play short-term.”
“They’re in the nothing-to-lose and everything-to-gain category,” he said Monday in KeyBank Center. “They know that if they don’t put whatever they can put into the game, that they’re done. When you’re facing that, you’re up against the wall, and a lot of times we’re going to see more risk. We might even see their defense involved a lot more.”
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The NHL on Monday fined Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov $5,000, the maximum amount allowed under the collective bargaining agreement, for cross-checking Sabres captain late in Sunday’s game.
Zadorov earned a major penalty for cross-checking and a game misconduct.
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While it doesn’t count as a power-play goal – the Sabres are scoreless in their last 39 attempts, including 18 tries in the playoffs – winger Josh Doan scored 7:10 into Sunday’s win, just two seconds after the man advantage expired.
“As far as I’m concerned, we scored a power-play goal,” Ruff said following the game. “The guy was still in the box, and it looked good. And there wasn’t a lot of power plays really out there tonight (three), but that was a difference-maker for us.”
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Owen Power became the third defensemen in NHL history on Sunday to record an assist in each of his first four playoff games when he registered the primary helper on Sabres defenseman Bowen Byram’s goal.
Ron Stackhouse (five games in 1975) and Joe Micheletti (four games in 1981) also accomplished it.