Brad Marchand buried the puck past Robin Lehner in an overtime penalty shot to lead the Boston Bruins to a 2-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres from TD Garden in Boston on Saturday night. It was the second straight win for the Bruins against the Sabres after defeating them in a shootout on Thursday night.
Lehner struggled with rebounds in the first period, and in contrast, the Bruins were able to get around the net with ease. S turnover from Cody Franson about midway through the opening frame ended up with David Krejci keeping the puck in the offensive zone. He found David Pastrnak hanging around the right harsh marks, and he slap passed to Loui Eriksson who was left uncovered at the lip of the crease. Eriksson put the puck in with ease to score for his first time in ten games, and the first time he had registered a point since January 23rd against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The combination of Krejci and Pastrnak has been strong of late, with six and seven points in their last five games, respectively.
Boston continued to get opportunities into the second period, with Patrice Bergeron picking up his own rebound for Lehner to make the save, and Brett Connolly had the puck on his stick into the blue paint of the crease only for Lehner to sprawl his stick along the goal line to deflect the puck out of the net.
A little more than halfway into the second period the Sabres finally got on the board. Sam Reinhart elevated the puck on his backhand to beat Rask underneath the crossbar and tie the game 1-1 for Buffalo. It was a goal in two games in a row or Reinhart for the first time in his career.
The game became physical in the second period when Matt Beleskey, who leads the Bruins in hits this season, hit Josh Gorges into the boards. There was another instance when Loui Eriksson was hit into the boards after a whistle, and late into the period Zdeno Chara and Brian Gionta had an altercation that led to penalties for each team.
The pace of the game was fast, with few stoppages, especially in the third period. The battle for the shots on goal advantage was even, despite the Bruins leading by a good margin for most period. The Sabres went 0-for-3 on the power play, the last one coming in the third period when Dennis Seidenberg was called for tripping in what easily could have been a penalty shot for Buffalo.
After a scoreless third period, which remained physical, the game headed to overtime. Overtime was back-and-forth before Marchand was dragged down skating towards the net and the penalty shot was called. Marchand, who has nine goals over his past ten games, beat Lehner under the crossbar to give the Bruins the victory.
The Bruins will take the victory and will return to the Garden ice on Tuesday night to face the Los Angeles Kings.
