Alex Tuch scored 4:03 into the third period to propel the visiting Buffalo Sabres to a 3-1 win over the Boston Bruins in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series on Thursday night.
Buffalo’s win was the second straight for a road team in the best-of-seven series, which it now leads 2-1. Game 4 is Sunday afternoon.
Tuch slid down to the top of the left circle to snap the game-winner high on Boston’s Jeremy Swayman. He retrieved the loose puck after Peyton Krebs was bounced off. Initially, the play continued with a failed Boston clearance landing the puck on Owen Power’s stick at the point.
After the Sabres killed back-to-back penalties early in the third to finish a 4-for-4 night on the penalty kill, Noah Ostlund beat out an icing call and stuffed home an empty-net goal with 1:24 remaining.
Ostlund and Bowen Byram — who, like Tuch, has scored twice through the first three games — finished with a goal and an assist for Buffalo, while Alex Lyon made 24 saves in his first start of the playoff run.
Lyon made 10 of his stops in the final frame, including a key one on Charlie McAvoy’s one-timer inside 5:00 to go.
Tanner Jeannot scored the lone goal and Jeremy Swayman stopped 25 shots for Boston.
Jeannot continued Boston’s trend of scoring first in the series, beating Lyon on the first second-period attempt he faced at the 3:26 mark. After a bruising shift from the fourth line, McAvoy fed the puck ahead to Jeannot who came down the left circle and whipped his first career playoff goal past Lyon’s blocker.
While Swayman denied Tage Thompson’s turnaround shot from the bottom of the right circle just over a minute later, Buffalo seized the momentum before the intermission, denying Viktor Arvidsson’s penalty shot at 9:50 before scoring the game-tying goal just 1:08 later.
The hosts had a chance to double their lead on Arvidsson’s attempt, which he missed wide after Rasmus Dahlin slashed him on a breakaway following a turnover.
Instead, it was a 1-1 game at 10:58. Noah Ostlund drove down the left wing and slipped a pass from beyond the goal line to Byram in the right circle, where he knocked home a low wrister over Swayman’s glove.
Before Tuch’s goal, Buffalo narrowly missed taking a 2-1 lead in the opening minute of the third, as an up-ice rush led Jason Zucker to a straightaway wrist shot that clanked off iron.
