a 4-3 comeback win<\/a> that gave Buffalo a 1-0 series lead. A lack of playoff experience didn\u2019t seem to bother Thompson and his teammates in the third period.<\/p>\n\u201cI mean, lack of experience?\u201d Thompson said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been in games that have prepared us for this. I think eight years of adversity is enough experience to get you ready for something like this. I think any time you go eight years not making playoffs and then it\u2019s finally here, the last thing you want is regret. There\u2019s just a heightened feeling of hunger. You just don\u2019t want to let this opportunity slip. I thought tonight was really important to make a statement and set our standard. I think we still have another level to get to. We\u2019re just going to keep trying every game to find another level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thompson has built his reputation on highlight reel goals, but his first playoff goal was a greasy one. He snagged a loose puck behind the net and then tucked it in before Swayman realized where the puck was. That brought all of the pregame energy rushing back into the building and ignited the Sabres\u2019 bench.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe place just erupted,\u201d defenseman Mattias Samuelsson said. \u201cAnd you could feel the energy building. I think, as a group, we thought once we crack them, we could roll from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thompson wasn\u2019t done. Less than four minutes later, Alex Tuch forced a turnover behind Boston\u2019s net, and Thompson outworked two Bruins to get possession of the puck. He quickly stepped out front and ripped a shot that beat Swayman glove side to tie the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always talk about, \u2018Dogs have to be dogs,\u2019 and today he showed up and led the team,\u201d Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin said. \u201cThat was special. We\u2019re gonna need him more.\u201d<\/p>\n
And as Thompson keyed the comeback, the Sabres weren\u2019t going to sit back and play for overtime.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bench was electric,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cThe players were talking about going and getting a third one. The energy on the bench, the emotion of the bench was where you needed it to be in a playoff game.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a long night of dealing with the Bruins\u2019 tight coverage in the defensive zone, the Sabres sliced it up repeatedly in the third period. They had a 38-20 advantage in shots and a 35-18 edge in scoring chances. Swayman looked capable of stealing the game at times, but the Sabres didn\u2019t stray from the plan that was allowing them to control the action.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just death by 1,000 cuts, I think,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cYou just keep wearing on him, wearing on him until you finally crack him, and we did.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the Sabres tied it, Ryan McLeod chipped a puck into the offensive zone. The Bruins botched the retrieval, and Jack Quinn won the race to the loose puck. He then cut out front and found Samuelsson with a perfect pass. Samuelsson shot just as Jason Zucker was cutting in front of the net to screen Swayman. The puck went in, and the structural integrity of KeyBank Center seemed to be at risk in the moments that followed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably the loudest I\u2019ve ever heard in my life,\u201d goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen said. \u201cIt\u2019s just one of those things you can\u2019t really \u2014 you know that it\u2019s going to be loud, you know it\u2019s going to be electric, but you never can kind of imagine how loud it\u2019s going to get.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabres fans had been partying outside the arena since 4 p.m, three and a half hours before puck drop. They teared up at the team\u2019s hype video, sang the national anthem and filled the building with \u201cSabres on the warpath!\u201d chants throughout the first period. And when Tuch scored an empty net goal to put the Sabres up 4-2, they started that party all over again. It didn\u2019t matter that David Pastrnak scored a late power-play goal to cut the lead to 4-3 with eight seconds left. By then, the fans who had waited so long to celebrate another playoff win were already losing their minds.<\/p>\n
When Thompson and Samuelsson were making their way from the locker room to their postgame news conferences, they both kept talking about the fans. They couldn\u2019t wait to see the videos of the scenes outside the building before and after the game.<\/p>\n
Coming into this game, Bruins coach Marco Sturm talked about his team being bigger and stronger<\/a>. He wanted the game to be low-event, knowing that the Bruins don\u2019t have the team speed to play at the Sabres\u2019 pace. The Sabres did outskate the Bruins for most of this game, but they also had a 53-38 advantage in hits. Samuelsson had nine of those in what was a dominant playoff debut.<\/p>\nOn the topic of playoff debuts, six Sabres players had a point, five of whom had never played in a playoff game before this one. The Sabres heard all week about their lack of playoff experience. That might not be a factor going forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told them right after the game, \u2018You want experience? You got it now,\u2019\u201d Ruff said. \u201cI mean, what an experience. If you\u2019re going to say, \u2018This was my first playoff game,\u2019 you\u2019ve got a great story to tell.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Ruff, he came into this game having coached 2,070 NHL games between the regular season and playoffs. He\u2019s lived in Buffalo since 1979 and now coached or played for this team in some capacity in every decade since. He\u2019s coached the Sabres in the playoffs in four different decades. He was still catching his breath, his voice hoarse in his postgame news conference. Asked whether this win or his first playoff win was sweeter, Ruff cracked a wide grin.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis one right here, right here, right now,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cWe just gotta go try to win one more. But this was probably the sweetest of all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 Tage Thompson had never played in a Stanley Cup playoff game before Sunday night. So…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[30131,3297,9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-204204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-boston-bruins","tag-buffalo-sabres","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}