Bruins rally in third, upend Sabres in OT for pivotal win
David Pastrnak opened the scoring, then recorded his second assist on Pavel Zacha's overtime goal as the visiting Boston Bruins rallied to cool off the Buffalo Sabres with a 4-3 victory.
On the rush, Pastrnak pulled back then sent a pass to Zacha, who beat Buffalo goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (27 saves) 38 seconds into overtime for his ninth goal in March.
Boston (40-24-8, 88 points) trailed 3-2 when with six minutes remaining in regulation, former Sabre Casey Mittelstadt converted via a friendly carom from the end board of teammate Jonathan Aspirot's shot and off the skate of Luukkonen.
Trying to better its playoff position in the Eastern Conference, Boston pushed its road point streak to six games (3-0-3).
Atlantic Division-leading Buffalo (44-20-8, 96 points), 33-7-4 since Dec. 9, trailed 2-1 after two periods and found itself killing a penalty early in the third.
Just after that Boston power play ended, Zach Benson took the puck from the Bruins' Mason Lohrei, broke into the zone and got it past Joonas Korpisalo (22 saves) while crashing the net to tie the game 5:54 into the third.
Lohrei was whistled for cross-checking at the end of the play and the Sabres made him and the Bruins pay. Just 33 seconds later, Tage Thompson sent a pass from behind the net for Jason Zucker to chip in for his second goal of the night.
Boston opened the scoring with 8:53 remaining in the first period. Camped out at the bottom of the circle, Pastrnak successfully one-timed Fraser Minten pinpoint pass from behind the Buffalo net.
Buffalo equalized with 4:42 left before the initial intermission. On the power play, Thompson sent the puck between the legs of Boston defenseman Hampus Lindholm and onto the stick of Zucker to beat Korpisalo.
After tripping himself up on a potential breakaway earlier in the second period, Pastrnak had a hand in giving Boston the lead back with near the midway point of the frame.
Luukkonen was able to poke-check the puck away from a net-front Pastrnak, but it was backhanded in by a trailing Viktor Arvidsson.