Leading 2-0 in the third period of Game 1 on Sunday night at the KeyBank Center in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Boston Bruins were in good position to take the opening against the Buffalo Sabres.
Going into the series as the underdog, the Black and Gold used a first-period goal from Morgan Geekie and a third-period goal from Elias Lindholm to build their lead. Jeremy Swayman was stopping everything that was thrown his way by Buffalo, but his teammates were not doing a great job of clearing pucks and getting them out of the zone. That all added up to the Bruins being on the wrong side of history.
Bruins end up on the wrong side of Stanley Cup Playoff history
Charlie McAvoy's inability to get the puck out of the defensive zone with just under a minute led to a Tage Thompson goal to cut the deficit to 2-1. He scored again to tie the game before Mattias Samuelsson gave Buffalo the lead 52 seconds after Thompson tied the game with under three minutes left. Alex Tuch added an empty-net goal for a David Pastrnak power play goal with six seconds left accounted for the 4-3 final.
The four-goal onslaught from Buffalo made Stanley Cup Playoff history. According to OptaSTATS, "the Sabres became the first team in NHL postseason history to win in regulation time after trailing by two or more goals to zero with eight minutes or fewer remaining in regulation."
In other words, this was a total collapse, choke job, whatever you want to call it, for the Boston Bruins. That's the type of loss that's difficult to come back from in the postseason. Game 2 will be Tuesday night in Western New York, and if they go down 2-0, well, it's going to be difficult to make this series. You don't give a team with no life some life late in the game. That's what Boston did and paid for it.
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