BUFFALO, NY – The Boston Bruins (1-1) evened their first-round series against the Buffalo Sabres (1-1) with a 4-2 win on Tuesday night at KeyBank Center.
Viktor Arvidsson (2) scored twice, while Morgan Geekie (2) and Pavel Zacha (1) each added one.
The game started physical, and the Sabres drew a penalty after a 5-on-5 scrum behind Jeremy Swayman’s net.
On the ensuing penalty kill, Mark Kastelic had a breakaway chance. Viktor Arvidsson had one after the power play expired, but Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped them both.
The Bruins had two power plays in the first period but capitalized on neither; the opportunities overlapped for just three seconds, but the Bruins only got one shot off.
Both teams skated to the locker room scoreless after 20. The Bruins won 18 of 20 faceoffs in the first period; they were down 8-7 in shots.
Jonathan Aspirot played the puck through to Viktor Arvidsson, who beat out Mattias Samuelsson and broke in on another breakaway. This time, he pulled the puck to his backhand and beat Luukkonen through his pads to open the scoring at 4:54 of the second period.
And then Morgan Geekie jumped back onto the scoresheet with a goal from behind the center ice line. He lobbed a shot that bounced over Luukkonen’s glove and into the back of the net to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead in the second period.
Geek Squad sneak attack! 🤓 pic.twitter.com/zhurKAvjCm
Pavel Zacha recorded his second career playoff goal moments later, redirecting a David Pastrnak feed behind Luukkonen to extend the Bruins’ lead to three. The goal came on the Bruins’ fourth power-play attempt, and it was just their second shot on the man advantage.
A PLAYOFF PPG FOR PAV 👏 pic.twitter.com/CjSoXu2vwl
They finished 1-for-5 on the power play on Tuesday; the penalty kill went 5-for-5.
They skated into their locker room with a 3-0 lead and an 18-16 advantage in shots. Jeremy Swayman stopped all 16 Sabres shots through 40 minutes.
Viktor Arvidsson scored 16 seconds into the third period, extending the Bruins’ lead to 4-0. He beat Luukkonen on his glove side, and Lindy Ruff pulled him for Alex Lyon.
Then the game got ugly. A total of 68 penalty minutes were handed out in the first six minutes of the third period.
A scrum broke out at the 2:26 mark after Charlie McAvoy hit Beck Malenstyn. Mark Kastelic and Logan Stanley squared off in a fight.
Four minutes later, Nikita Zadorov threw Zach Benson to the ground after he poked Jeremy Swayman, and mayhem followed. All five Bruins skaters paired off with a Buffalo skater, and 52 of the game’s 94 penalty minutes were handed out during the scrum.
Zadorov, Benson, Andrew Peeke, and Tage Thompson all received 10-minute misconducts.
Bowen Byram broke Jeremy Swayman’s shutout with 6:06 to play in the third period; he stopped all of his first 26 shots.
The Bruins held on in the final five minutes as the Sabres pushed after cutting the lead to two. They used their timeout and fired six more shots, but it was not enough to mount their second straight third-period comeback.