Sabres rally from 2-goal deficit, stun Bruins in Game 1

Boston looked in control with a two-goal lead deep into the third period, then watched Buffalo tear the game apart in a burst that turned Game 1 into a warning about how fast a playoff series can tilt. The Sabres scored four times in 6:46 and beat the Bruins 4-3 at KeyBank Center, their first playoff victory since April 20, 2011.

Tage Thompson, in his first NHL postseason game, scored twice to power the rally. Buffalo pulled within one at 12:02 of the third, tied it at 15:44 and took the lead at 16:36 on Mattias Samuelsson’s goal. Alex Tuch added an empty-net goal with 1:12 left, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 17 saves to close it out. The Sabres also scored three times in a 4:34 span late in the period, a closing surge that made Boston’s earlier lead disappear almost instantly.

The comeback carried unusual weight. ESPN Research said Buffalo became only the second team ever to overcome a multigoal deficit in the final eight minutes and win a playoff game in regulation, joining the New York Americans against the Detroit Red Wings in the 1940 NHL quarterfinals. For a franchise that had endured an NHL-record 14-season playoff drought before returning this spring, the finish was more than a single-game swing. It was the kind of response that can reshape a series and a room.

Boston, meanwhile, left with hard questions about how it allowed control to slip. The Bruins had led 2-0 early in the third and still had offense from Elias Lindholm, David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie, with Pastrnak and Geekie each producing three points. But the structure that carried Boston into the postseason as the East’s first wild card, at 45-27-10, broke down when the pace and pressure rose.

Buffalo entered at 50-23-8 after winning the Atlantic Division, and the contrast with Boston’s earlier trip to Buffalo was not lost in the result. On March 25, Boston beat the Sabres 4-3 in overtime in Buffalo, with Pastrnak recording a goal and two assists and Pavel Zacha scoring 38 seconds into overtime. This time, Buffalo turned the third period into its own statement, and Boston now has to answer whether the loss was a bad night or a flaw exposed under playoff pressure.