Home HOCKEY NHL Sabres End Longest Active NHL Playoff Drought with Road Win

Sabres End Longest Active NHL Playoff Drought with Road Win

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Bruins Vs Sabres
Buffalo clinches first playoff series win since 2007

Alex Tuch opened the scoring and Buffalo never trailed, with goals from Samuelsson, Benson, and an empty-netter by Josh Norris.


Sabres snap 18-year drought, beat Bruins 4-1 to reach round 2. David Pastrnak scored for Boston, joining Marchand, Lucic, and Krejci for 8+ career playoff goals in Games 6/7 combined...


The Buffalo Sabres beat the Boston Bruins 4-1 in Game 6 on Friday, punching their ticket to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in 18 years.  


It ended the NHL’s longest active playoff-series drought. The win also gave Buffalo its first series-clinching road victory since 2007, when they knocked out the Rangers in Game 6 to reach the Eastern Conference Finals.  


Next up for the Sabres is the winner of the Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Montreal Canadiens matchup, which is going to Game 7.  


Alex Lyon took over for Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in Game 2 and hasn’t given up more than 2 goals in any playoff game since. He went 1-1-2-1 over the final four games of the series.  


For Boston, it’s a first-round exit for the third time in the last five years.


Sabres Set the Tone Early and Never Looked Back  

Buffalo had a shot to close out their first playoff series since 2007, and they struck first. Alex Tuch opened the scoring just 3:25 into Game 6, netting his 4th goal of the series to put the Sabres up 1-0.  


That goal made Tuch the 4th Sabres player in the last 20 years to score 3+ road goals in a single playoff series, joining Thomas Vanek in 2011, Stu Barnes in 1999, and Michal Grosek in 1998.  




Buffalo didn’t wait long to make it 2-0. Mattias Samuelsson buried his 2nd goal of the series on the Sabres’ 6th shot of the night.  


The first period ended with Buffalo 0-for-2 on the power play. For Boston, it was familiar trouble: the Bruins were facing a multi-goal playoff deficit for the 152nd time, and they’ve only come back to win 4 of those games.




Boston cut the deficit to 2-1 just two minutes into the second period.  


David Pastrnak scored his 3rd goal of the series on that tally. With it, he joined Brad Marchand with 10, Milan Lucic with 10, and David Krejci with 9 as the only Bruins to record 8 or more career playoff goals in Game 6 and Game 7 combined.




The second period ran for 9 minutes and 13 seconds without a whistle, beating the 7-minute stretch in the Canadiens-Lightning Game 6 that was happening at the same time.  


Buffalo went 0-for-3 on the power play after Boston’s Morgan Geekie took the only penalty of the period for interference.


Like the first two periods, the third opened with a goal in the first 6 minutes. This time it was Zach Benson making it 3-1 with 14:02 left, his 2nd goal of the playoffs. 
 



The teams had each put up 21 goals total at that point, but Buffalo sealed it. Josh Norris scored an empty-netter to make it 4-1 and advance the Sabres, marking his first goal of the series.


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