BOSTON – Buffalo Sabres goalie Alex Lyon has experienced this before. Three years ago, he started three games during the Florida Panthers’ stunning first-round upset of the Bruins in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He later had a relief appearance in the final.
Turning to Lyon on Thursday for Game 3 of the Sabres’ opening-round series felt inevitable after goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen allowed an 89-foot goal and later got pulled from Tuesday’s 4-2 home loss to the Bruins.
“He brings experience,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said prior to Thursday’s game in TD Garden. “As well as he played for us all year, he’s got a background of where he’s been. He’s been in big games before. I think he understands that.”
Lyon hadn’t started a game since allowing three goals on five shots on April 4 and getting yanked 5:52 into 6-2 road loss to the Washington Capitals. He did, however, relieve Luukkonen in Tuesday’s 4-2 home loss, stopping all seven shots he faced in 14:10 of action.
The Yale product suffered a muscle strain late in the regular season and returned for Game 1 on Sunday to back up Luukkonen.
The Sabres, of course, kept three goalies all season, also utilizing rookie Colten Ellis. Before Lyon’s late-season struggles and injury, he alternated starts with Luukkonen over an 18-game stretch, forming a dynamic tandem.
“We’ve used three goalies all year,” Ruff said. “Some people thought it was a little unusual that we alternated. The cool thing about our team is … we haven’t relied on one guy. We haven’t relied on one goalie. We’ve had a lot of different players help us get to where we are.
“We know we’re a good team because of the depth of our goaltending. We know we’re a good team because of the depth of our forwards. It isn’t about one person. We could alternate goaltenders from now until the end of the playoffs and it would be perfectly normal for our club.”
Lyon enjoyed a terrific season, registering a 20-10-4 record with a 2.74 goals-against average, a 9.07 save percentage and three shutouts in 36 games. He won 10 straight road games, one short of the NHL record.
He hit a rut late in the year, compiling ghastly numbers – a 0-2-1 mark with a 6.24 goals against-average and a .772 save percentage – in his final three starts.
In other lineup news, the Sabres made two changes up front, inserting rookie Noah Ostlund for Josh Norris, who’s day to day with an undisclosed injury, according to Ruff, and Tyson Kozak for Josh Dunne.
The oft-injured Norris crashed into the boards in Tuesday’s 4-2 home loss to the Bruins but stayed in the game.
Ruff said he doesn’t know when Norris suffered his injury.
“Don’t know exactly what it is,” he said. “Just not feeling right and unable to play.”
Norris scored 13 goals and 34 points in 44 games this season. He suffered an upper-body injury opening night and missed the next 24 contests.
Ostlund and Kozak became the 12th and 13th Sabres to make their postseason debut this series.
Ostlund, who missed the 12 games with an upper-body injury, played in Norris’ spot between Zach Benson and Josh Doan. The Swede also had a spot on the second power-play unit. Winger Alex Tuch moved up to take Norris’ place on the top unit.
Watching the first two games of the hotly contested series helped Ostlund get a feel for the postseason.
“I feel more ready to go now,” he said.
Ostlund emerged as one of the Sabres’ biggest surprises this season, registering 11 goals, 27 points and a plus-11 rating in 60 games.
Meanwhile, Kozak centered Jordan Greenway and Beck Malenstyn.
Kozak believes his game will work well in the playoffs.
“I’m the kind of player that likes to get to the dirty areas around the ice, in the corners, front the net kind kind of area,” he said. “I think I just got to use my speed as well. I think that one of my big assets is my speed and getting in on the forecheck and disrupting their defenseman.”
Ruff said Kozak, who moved in and out of the lineup during the regular season, has “brought a lot of speed and a lot of tenacity.”
“I think he can pressure the puck, his tracking away from the puck with his skating has been real good,” he said. “In the faceoff dot, there’s times that I’ve really trusted him. He’s won some key faceoffs.”
Kozak scored two goals and six points in 46 games this season.
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On Tuesday, cameras caught Lyon yelling some colorful words unfit for this space at Bruins rookie Fraser Minten during his relief appearance.
“For me, that’s playoff hockey,” Ruff said.
Lyon said he likes that aspect of hockey. He knows, however, it might bother some of his teammates.
“I take that approach too often when I should probably just put it in the back pocket every once in a while,” he said Wednesday in Buffalo. “But it’s just how I am and that’s how I play the game. …
“You don’t ever want to back down from the moment. And the older I get, the more I really enjoy those moments, and that’s kind of what gets you stimulated.”
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The NHL has announced Game 5 on Tuesday in Buffalo will start at 7:30 p.m.