In Buffalo, Jeremy Swayman made 24 saves for the Boston Bruins in a 5-1 win over the Sabres on Wednesday night.
Kyle Okposo scored, the Sabres lone goal, to give Buffalo a 1-0 lead in the first period.
“It was fun to watch,” Swayman said. “It was a good camaraderie game. All the guys were super happy in the locker room and I’m sure on the bench, so it was a fun game to be a part of.”
The Bruins responded with four straight goals in the first period for a 4-1 lead heading to the middle frame.
“We were trying to play the right way,” Boston head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Get up the ice early, get it out of our end, support the puck, play off the shot. So that’s what happened on that. We did a good job getting out of our end. Our [defensemen] got caught a little bit. I thought ‘Bergy’ played the 1-on-1 pretty good. It’s just a good shot by Okposo.”
Patrice Bergeron got the game tied and, and Charlie Coyle gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead.
“[It’s] first nature to dish the puck,” Coyle said, “but … I think when you shoot the puck a little more, it opens things up for next time, being that threat to shoot and score.”
David Pastrnak pushed the lead to 3-1.
“We’ve got to keep pushing and pushing ahead,” Buffalo head coach Don Granato said. “It’s unfortunate, but at the same time, we have to fight through and compete. If it’s going to change, it’s going to be those core [things], competitiveness. Obviously, we can look at the film and tweak … small details that we can look at. I looked at a few just after the game that need to be better. That will be our focus, absolutely.”
Boston improved to 10-6-0.
Mike Reilly completed the outburst to make it 4-1.
The four-goal barrage came in a span of 5:31.
The Sabres dropped 7-10-2.
“Tonight was a product of them just shooting everything,” Okposo said. “They made it a point, especially in the first and third, to just throw everything at the net and crash. We just didn’t do a good enough job clearing the second opportunities, and they were able to cash in on that. The best way to eliminate that is spending more time in the O-zone. We just didn’t do it enough in the latter half of the first period and in the third, especially.”
Taylor Hall hit for a power play goal in the third period to remove any doubt about the outcome of the game, his strike made it the 5-1 final.
Aaron Dell made 18 saves through one period of play.
“Never have I been comfortable as a coach trying to say ‘It’s a goaltending thing,'” Granato said. “Even if at times you thought maybe that could’ve been a save, you still look at the things that led to that and work to improve those. … There’s other things that we can turn our attention [to] that are within our control to become better at, and we have that opportunity to become better at it. So this little stretch is exposing us to things that we need to target and become better at, and we will. … We’ve got to find a way to be better.”
Dustin Tokarski made 24 saves in the final two periods, in relief.
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