In Buffalo, 5-1 lead almost was not enough for the Sabres on Friday night.
Fortunately, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 36 saves in his first NHL start and helped the Sabres defeat the Boston Bruins, 6-4.
“Of course it’s first game, first win. Those are things which will stay for a long time,” Luukkonen said. “I think just the game as itself, the first shot got in. And then kind of got through that. In the end there were a couple of goals too. It wasn’t probably the way I thought it would be, but in the end, we got the win. And it means a lot.”
The Sabres took a 5-1 lead at 4:30 of the third period and then had to hang on as the Bruins scored three straight to close to 5-4.
Sam Reinhart potted a hat trick for the Sabres, including the empty-netter that iced the win.
“I was very happy and impressed with our guys,” Sabres head coach Don Granato said. “We played with a lot of frustration yesterday, specifically on the power play, and I thought that carried over into our 5-on-5 game, that frustration. We could have late in the game, but the chatter on the bench was outstanding, the posture of the guys on the bench. Just listening to them speak after we gave up a couple goals and it was close, very commanding voices in initiative taking responses by them. So, that was very nice to see as far as the psychology of it goes.”
Steven Kampfer gave Boston a 1-0 lead in the opening frame before the Sabres reeled off five straight.
“That wasn’t the way I imagined the start would be,” Luukkonen said with a laugh. “But I think we played really well today as a team. Huge thanks to the boys today. We played a really solid game.”
Rasmus Dahlin, Casey Mittelstadt, Arttu Ruotsalainen, and Reinhart gave the Sabres the 6-1 lead through the early minutes of the third period.
“Any goal support you can get for your goaltender, it helps,” Granato said. “We fell behind 1-0, you know the statistics in this League when you fall behind 1-0. They’re not good. So for our guys to stay on it, continue to just stay with the game plan and stay focused and work and get rewarded for it obviously made things much easier for [Luukkonen] and he did his job all the way through I felt.”
The Bruins’ third period rally was courtesy of Nick Ritchie, Kevan Miller and Taylor Hall, who scored with the extra attacker.
“We lost some puck battles tonight and I thought our breakout obviously at times looked very good, other times we just self-inflicted,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I think guys fell into different categories. You can make the assumption there. On a whole, clearly was not good enough to win to most nights.”
Tuukka Rask got the start for Boston and was given a rare hook after yielding four goals and making 24 saves.
“I think we just got away from our game plan,” Kampfer said. “It’s tough to win hockey games when you show up for the last eight, nine minutes of the game. It’s on us in the room. It’s the National Hockey League, every team’s good, everybody can beat everybody. We’ve got to show up and play games like that. That’s on us in the room to make sure that when 7 o’clock rolls around, we’re ready for 60 minutes.”
Jaroslav Halak relieved Rask early in the final frame;Â four saves.
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