The Boston Bruins are out to rewrite the history books that say they have never come back from a 3-1 series deficit to advance in the playoffs. They have taken 3-1 series deficits to seven games, so a victory tonight against the Buffalo Sabres is not making history in an of itself. The 2007-08 Bruins took a 3-1 deficit to Game 7 in Montreal, and they took a 3-1 deficit to Game 7 the next season only to lose in seven to the Carolina Hurricanes in overtime at the Garden.
The experience gained especially by Boston’s younger players in this fight is gigantic for future reference, and for the group as a developing team of the future.
Beyond that, the Bruins are playing with house money, and the pressure tonight is on the visiting Sabres, who have turned around what once looked like the latest in a long line of a disastrous waste of young talent and instead finally figured it out, winning the Atlantic Division and looking absolutely dominant in a Game 4 dismissed in these parts as a “no show” by the homestanding Bruins, who – for all their regular-season home-ice success in 2025-26 – are once again struggling to find the winning formula in the playoffs when skating before their home crowd.
Coach Marco Sturm is going with the same lineup that won Game 5 in Buffalo, which means three right shots on defense, something he had lived without for so very long in the name of anyone but Henri Jokiharju. Well Jokiharju, who has two more years remaining at $3 million per, is once again in the lineup.
Sturm’s patience with Mason Lohrei finally gave way to desperate measures, and true to regular-season form, the coach is sticking with the winning formula. It’s what a lot of coaches do and it’s what Sturm does. He also, by the way, finally moved Morgan Geekie back to the off wing (right shot at LW) amidst a forward-lines reconfiguration that got much attention for other reasons, especially the deployment of Elias Lindholm and Marat Khusnutdinov (see line chart).
FIRST PERIOD
Tage Thompson entered with speed, and once Rasmus Dahlin got the puck the play got dangerous, and Beck Malenstyn was at the doorstep for the redirect at 3:25.
The Sabres celebrated a second goal 25 seconds later at 3:50, but the contact was ruled to have been made above the 4-foot-height of the crossbar – no goal.
Hampus Lindholm to the penalty box and Buffalo to the powerplay at 6:29.
Bruins get the kill after some Jeremy Swayman saves from the points, but the Sabres keep the pressure in the subsequent shift.
Broken play from Morgan Geekie times out perfectly for a Casey Mittelstadt breakaway, but Alex Lyon stops his backhand bid and the swat follow.
David Pastrnak sends in Khusnutdinov, but Lyon gets his right pad on the attempt.
Buffalo cycles and Mattias Samuelsson’s shot from the left point finds the low, near side inside the left post, and it’s 2-0 Buffalo with 7:34 left in the opening period.
The game hasn’t had lots of shot attempts, but the Bruins are getting sucked into a chance-trading war and it’s not favoring them.
Jonathan Aspirot puts the hook on Zach Benson, impeding his forecheck. Aspirot goes but Benson does not for the obvious dive.
Pastrnak centers to Elias Lindholm, and Lyon is there. Too tight to the net as it turned out.
Shots after one: 12-6 Buffalo. The period was not that close, as the Sabres’ team speed was as effective on the defensive side of the puck as it was offensively.
The Bruins miss Viktor Arvidsson but not because he’s faster than the average Bruin, it’s because he brings that Brad Marchand-like savvy and compete level that wins the Bruins pucks they haven’t been able to win with speed.
The Bruins had a couple of point-blank chances, but they were few and far between. The Sabres, meanwhile, skated through the Bruins’ neutral-zone trap like it was a practice drill. Once in the zone, they cycled the puck for extended pressure on multiple occasions.
The Bruins once again find themselves in deep against a better hockey team or at least a more-actualized one.
The playoffs have a way of exposing season-long vulnerabilities, and right now the Bruins are in an uphill fight, trailing 2-0 on the scoreboard and in desperate need of a break that gets them back into this hockey game. There are no tomorrows without a W tonight.
SECOND PERIOD
A neutral-zone turnover puts the Bruins in business as Pastrnak one-times a cross-ice pass from Pavel Zacha 1:54 into the second period. Hampus Lindholm on the disruption. 2-1 Buffalo.
The Sabres’ mistake has breathed life into a dead crowd at TD Garden.
We’ve got a game.
The Bruins have the first three shots on goal of the second period, and one has gone in.
Pastrnak is showing the officials a skateblade problem that excused him from having to stay out there for the D-zone faceoff after the Bruins iced the puck.
Peyton Krebs, one of Buffalo’s better players so far tonight, gets a knockdown hit on Charlie McAvoy on a puck chase to the Boston end. Krebs has set effective picks in the attacking zone and in the first period did an excellent job disrupting the Bruins’ possessions in the Boston end and in the middle of the rink.
Geekie is getting an interference penalty at 7:04, but the Sabres at one point looked like the Fred Shero 1970s Philadelphia Flyers with upwards of 10 skaters on the ice at once during a wholesale line change. Buffalo to the powerplay.
Riveting second period, the kind you wait all season for, the puck changing direction as if to reverse the fortunes of a franchise. The 20 minutes are but 2:45 from going into the books as an early goal by the Bruins, setting the table for a dramatic third frame, but the hockey has been electric, even when sloppy.
Swayman on Alex Tuch cruising into the high slot with 1:13 left in the second period.
Bruins outshoot Buffalo 8-7 in the second period (shots are 19-12 Sabres through two periods).
THIRD PERIOD
The Buffalo Sabres are trying to advance in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since winning two rounds in 2007.
The TD Garden crowd boos the Sabres for taking time to organize their rush against Sturm’s neutral-zone trap.
Rink Rap with Mick Colageo 