Sabres' Playoff Breakthrough
- The Buffalo Sabres earned their first playoff win since 2011 with a four‑goal third period comeback. - The outburst came against the Boston Bruins in Game 1 of their first‑round series. - ESPN highlighted the win as the Sabres' first postseason victory in 15 years, a notable early playoff development. (espn.com)
Buffalo erased a two-goal deficit in the final eight minutes Sunday and beat Boston 4-3 in Game 1 at KeyBank Center. (espn.com) Mattias Samuelson scored the go-ahead goal with 3:24 left, Tage Thompson scored twice 3:42 apart to tie it, and Alex Tuch added an empty-netter with 1:12 remaining. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 17 shots for Buffalo. (espn.com) Boston led 3-1 late in the third period after goals from Morgan Geekie, Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak. Pastrnak finished with a goal and two assists, then scored again with seven seconds left to cut Buffalo’s margin back to one. (nhl.com) The win was Buffalo’s first playoff victory since April 20, 2011, when the Sabres beat Philadelphia 1-0 in Game 4 of a first-round series they later lost in seven games. It was also Buffalo’s first postseason game after ending a 14-season playoff drought earlier this month. (nbcsports.com; nhl.com) Buffalo’s comeback also landed in rare company. ESPN reported the Sabres became just the second team to erase a multigoal deficit in the final eight minutes and still win a playoff game in regulation. (espn.com) The result came in Buffalo’s first home playoff game since 2011, with KeyBank Center sold out after tickets had been gone since January. NHL.com said the building was “sold out since January” before the series opener. (nhl.com) The Sabres entered the series as the Atlantic Division winner after snapping the longest playoff absence in National Hockey League history at 14 seasons. Boston returned after a one-year playoff absence and opened the series on the road Tuesday, April 21, for Game 2 in Buffalo. (nbcsports.com; nhl.com) For Buffalo, the number attached to the night is 15: years between playoff wins, from April 2011 to April 2026, closed by four third-period goals in one of the wildest finishes of this opening round. (espn.com)
