Boston Bruins: Steven Kampfer steps up in win over Buffalo

The Boston Bruins defeated the Buffalo Sabres for the second game in a row.

The Boston Bruins faced a home-and-home with the Buffalo Sabres after the holiday break. This was a great chance for Boston to bank some points and extend its lead in the Atlantic Division.

The Bruins won the first game in Buffalo courtesy of a Jaroslav Halak shutout. Then, Boston followed that up with a 3-2 victory on Sunday night to take all four points.

Game recap: Bruins vs Sabres

Like we saw on Friday night, the Bruins got on the board first in the latter half of the first period. Patrice Bergeron made a great defensive play to send Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak on a two-on-one. Pastrnak finished the play with his 29th goal of the season.

After Buffalo scored in the second, the two teams started the third period deadlocked at two. The Bruins had a huge opportunity to take the lead with a four minute power play. Fortunately, they didn’t let this pass.

Jake DeBrusk redirected a Steven Kampfer shot-pass to make it 2-1. Only 18 seconds later, DeBrusk scored again when he fired a puck on net from a bad angle.

The Sabres cut the lead to 3-2 with a little under 15 minutes remaining, but Tuukka Rask and the Bruins held on to win. Rask made 24 saves to pick up his 15th win of the season.

Player of the game: Steven Kampfer

Sunday night against Buffalo was only Steven Kampfer’s sixth game of the season, but it certainly was his best.

Kampfer found himself in the lineup for the second-straight game because of injuries to Torey Krug and Charlie McAvoy. He started on the third pairing, but he jumped up after an in-game injury to Connor Clifton.

Given the injury situation, Kampfer logged 19:26 in ice, far and away his most of the season. He made a few nice defensive plays, and he also contributed offensively.

Kampfer picked up two power play assists for Boston. The first was a creative shot-pass to DeBrusk out front. Kampfer looked like a power play specialist with this particular assist.

All in all, Kampfer’s play on Sunday shows how he’s a valuable depth piece for the Bruins. When you face injuries, it’s nice to have someone with NHL experience to fill in on the backend.

The Bruins conclude 2019 with a Tuesday afternoon game in New Jersey. We’ll learn more about the injury situation before then, but for now, expect Kampfer to come up big again.