The Boston Bruins held off the visiting Buffalo Sabres Saturday night, 2-1, behind Tuukka Rask, who made 31 saves for the win.
Chris Wagner and David Backes provided all the offense as the held a 2-0 lead into the third period.
“Trying to do my part,” Backes said. “I think we found a role a little bit and each guy trying to do their part fits together pretty well.”
Tuukka Rask made 31 saves in win over Sabres – file photo courtesy of Lewis Bleiman
Boston improved to 24-14-4.
“I thought we played as good as I can remember,” Rask said. “For a long time they had nothing going on, and then obviously they hung in there. They got some kind of momentum there at times and then in the third they kept pushing and got some chances, but we hung in there.”
Rasmus Ristolainen had the only strike for the Sabres.
“We made some soft plays. Maybe there wasn’t some communication; we didn’t win enough battles,” Ristolainen said. “Of course they played well too, but you know that happens and you just got to hang in there and grind and get some dirty ones.”
The Sabres dropped to 22-14-6 and are 1-3-1 in their last five.
“I think it was just our lack of execution fed right into their transition,” Sabres coach Phil Housley said. “You know I really like the way we responded in the third period. We had a really good, solid push. We’re going to leave some holes open because we’re trying to tie the game up, but we miss an opportunity to get back into the game and tie it up.”
[WATCH: All Sabres vs. Bruins highlights]
Linus Ullmark made 39 saves in the loss.
“I mean that’s the beauty of having a good goaltender keeping you in games. We’ve got to do a better job of pushing pucks forwards and giving him some help. We can’t rely on our goaltenders every night,” the Sabres’ Zach Bogosian said of Ullmark.
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