The Buffalo Sabres lost their first chance to close out the playoff series against the Boston Bruins, as David Pastrnak scored in overtime for a 2-1 Bruins victory in Game 5 at KeyBank Center on April 29.
With this result, the Sabres now lead the series 3-2 and will travel to Boston for Game 6 on Friday. The game was closely contested, with Buffalo generating strong opportunities but unable to capitalize during regulation or overtime.
Sabres goalie Alex Lyon said, “It’s just one play at the end from a really good player. That’s usually how these things go, and now it’s just incumbent on us to move forward.”
Rasmus Dahlin opened scoring early in the first period on a power play goal that ended Buffalo’s previous struggles with man advantage. Dahlin said about his approach: “Kept it simple. Took what we had, and we didn’t overthink stuff out there.”
Boston tied the game midway through the second period when Elias Lindholm scored after collecting his own rebound. Despite several quality chances from players like Peyton Krebs, Tage Thompson, Ryan McLeod and Jack Quinn late in regulation and early in overtime, Sabres forwards were unable to get another puck past Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman.
Coach Lindy Ruff commented on his team’s effort: “I said this morning, it’s going to be a really hard hockey game. It was a hard hockey game. We had two or three really good chances that (we) didn’t quite hit on in the third period. Even in overtime, we’re looking to make a pass for a guy on a breakaway, and we hit a stick, they’re changing, and it ends up going the other way.”
The Sabres also faced adversity when forward Noah Ostlund left with an apparent lower-body injury after an incident along the boards with Casey Mittelstadt of Boston; Ruff’s initial assessment was: “It doesn’t look good.” The loss led to increased ice time for several players including Thompson (24:30), Krebs (24:27), McLeod (21:18), while Tyson Kozak skated a career-high of nearly seventeen minutes.
Looking ahead to Game 6 preparations Ruff said: “Tough game tonight. We’ll take a day off. We’ll get a good practice in on [Thursday] and get ready to play a game on [Friday]. And we’ve been a good road team.” The Sabres have performed well away from home recently with an NHL-best record since December.
Game 6 is scheduled for Friday at 7:30 p.m., broadcast locally by MSG and nationally by ESPN.
