Bruins Hold Off Sabres Late Push, Win Game 2

And then Morgan Geekie jumped back onto the scoresheet with a goal from behind the center ice line. He lobbed a shot that bounced over Luukkonen’s glove and into the back of the net to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead in the second period.

Pavel Zacha recorded his second career playoff goal moments later, redirecting a David Pastrnak feed behind Luukkonen to extend the Bruins’ lead to three. The goal came on the Bruins’ fourth power-play attempt, and it was just their second shot on the man advantage.

They finished 1-for-5 on the power play on Tuesday; the penalty kill went 5-for-5.

They skated into their locker room with a 3-0 lead and an 18-16 advantage in shots. Jeremy Swayman stopped all 16 Sabres shots through 40 minutes.

Viktor Arvidsson scored 16 seconds into the third period, extending the Bruins’ lead to 4-0. He beat Luukkonen on his glove side, and Lindy Ruff pulled him for Alex Lyon.

Luukkonen allowed four goals on 19 shots in 40:16.

Then the game got ugly. A total of 68 penalty minutes were handed out in the first six minutes of the third period.

A scrum broke out at the 2:26 mark after Charlie McAvoy hit Beck Malenstyn. Mark Kastelic and Logan Stanley squared off in a fight.

Four minutes later, Nikita Zadorov threw Zach Benson to the ground after he poked Jeremy Swayman, and mayhem followed. All five Bruins skaters paired off with a Buffalo skater, and 52 of the game’s 94 penalty minutes were handed out during the scrum.

Zadorov, Benson, Andrew Peeke, and Tage Thompson all received 10-minute misconducts.

Bowen Byram broke Jeremy Swayman’s shutout with 6:06 to play in the third period; he stopped all of his first 26 shots.

Peyton Krebs added another one 74 seconds later.

The Bruins held on in the final five minutes as the Sabres pushed after cutting the lead to two. They used their timeout and fired six more shots, but it was not enough to mount their second straight third-period comeback.

The Bruins will travel home to play Game 3 at the TD Garden on Thursday at 7:00 PM.

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