Following a 3-0 win over the New Jersey Devils in the opening game of the 2021 Sabres Prospects Challenge, the Buffalo Sabres looked to carry the momentum into Saturday afternoon with a matchup against the Boston Bruins.
Despite a gritty effort, the Bruins ended up being more fresh and healthy than the Sabres, as they outlast Buffalo to earn a 5-2 win at Harborcenter.
Just like Friday night against the Devils, the Sabres managed to open the scoring with a power play goal from Brett Murray.
Following a delay of game penalty taken by the Bruins, the Sabres went to work and Murray set himself up in his workshop around the Boston crease. After a nice cross-ice feed from J-J Peterka to get the puck to Arttu Ruotsalainen, Ruotsalainen fed a well-timed, beautiful pass to Murray for a tap-in goal.
Just 16 seconds after the Sabres got the opening goal, Buffalo got into penalty trouble of their own with camp invitee Charlie Desroches was penalized for hooking.
Just 1:08 into the man advantage, the Bruins capitalize, as forward Jesper Froden was able to put in a rebound chance off a shot by Samuel Asselin for his first goal of the tournament.
The rest of the first period was a chippy affair between both teams, with the Bruins taking 19 minutes worth of penalties that saw Buffalo get five power play opportunities. However, the Sabres only managed to score on their opening chance with the man advantage.
The Bruins managed to take a 2-1 lead early in the second period thanks to another power play goal.
After Rochester Americans defenseman Nick Boka was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct in front of the Sabres bench, the Bruins made the penalty hurt 1:38 later. After some good puck movement from the Bruins, Bruins defenseman Jack Ahcan fired a shot to the net that was touched by Asselin on its way and found its in-behind goalie Oliver Satny.
At the halfway point of the second period, Satny was pulled and replaced with fellow camp invitee, Mack Guzda. In a little more than 30 minutes of action, Satny was credited with 14 saves on 16 shots faced.
The Sabres wasted zero time tying the game in the third period with a goal just 22 seconds into the final frame.
After Murray kept a clearing attempt in the Bruins end, the Sabres get some puck luck as a pass attempt from Ruotsalainen bounced off a foot of a Bruins defender to a wide-open Peterka in the slot. With plenty of time to shoot, Peterka wound up and fired his attempt off the inside of the post and past Keyser to make the score 2-2.
A little more than seven minutes later, the Bruins re-took the lead as Brett Harrison was able to find a way to slide the puck through Guzda. Right after Peterka made a great defensive play to break up a scoring chance for the Bruins, Harrison was in the right spot to get a shot off and earn the go-ahead tally.
Buffalo ended up getting into more penalty trouble later in the third period as the Sabres found themselves down two men for 1:04 with 15:20 remaining in regulation.
The Bruins only needed 26 seconds of that two-man advantage to take a two-goal advantage, as Froden was able to capitalize with his second power play goal of the afternoon.
With the Sabres desperately attempting to close the deficit in the dying moments of the game, Boston would put the cherry on top of the game with an empty net goal from 2021 first round pick Fabian Lysell.
Ahead of the game, it was revealed that defenseman Mattias Samuelsson did not play on Saturday due to a lower-body injury suffered late in Friday's game against New Jersey. Meanwhile, forward Jack Quinn was also not available for the Sabres, as he sat out for a "maintenance day."
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GAME SUMMARY
Goal Summary:
First Period:
BUF: 3:19 - Brett Murray (2) PPG (Arttu Ruotsalainen, J-J Peterka)
BOS: 4:43 - Jesper Froden (1) PPG (Samuel Asselin, Jakub Lauko)
Second Period:
BUF: NONE
BOS: 2:57 - Samuel Asselin (1) PPG (Jack Ahcan, Jesper Froden)
Third Period:
BUF: 0:22 - J-J Peterka (2) (Arttu Ruotsalainen, Brett Murray)
BOS: 7:32 - Brett Harrison (1) (Ryan Mast); 15:14 - Jesper Froden (2) PPG (Samuel Asselin, Fabian Lysell); 18:14 - Fabian Lysell (1) ENG (Jakub Lauko)
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Penalty Summary:
First Period:
BUF: 3:35 - Charlie Desroches (Hooking - 2 min.); 14:34 - Brett Murray (Roughing - 2 min.); 14:34 - Peter Tischke (Fighting - 5 min.)
BOS: 1:57 - Matt Filipe (Delay of Game - 2 min.); 14:34 - Nick Wolff (Roughing - 2 min.); 14:34 - Marc Boudreau (Roughing - 2 min.); Alex-Olivier Voyer (Fighting - 5 min.); 11:28 - Curtis Hall (High Sticking - 4 min.); 11:48 - Nick Wolff (Delay of Game - 2 min.); 17:43 - Jesper Froden (Holding - 2 min.)
Second Period:
BUF: 1:19 - Nick Boka (Unsportsmanlike conduct - 2 min.)
BOS: NONE
Third Period:
BUF: 13:43 - Oskari Laaksonen (Slashing - 2 min.); 14:40 - Matthew Cairns (Boarding - 2 min.)
BOS: NONE
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Goalies:
BUF: Oliver Satny - 14 saves / Mack Guzda - 13 saves
BOS: Kyle Keyser - 32 saves
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Shots:
BUF: 34 (14, 10, 10)
BOS: 31 (7, 13, 11)
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What's Next:
The rest of the Sabres will report to training camp on Wednesday, Sept. 22 to prepare for the start of the 2021-22 regular season. Buffalo's first preseason game will come on Tuesday, Sept. 28 against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
***Photo: Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres)