Bruins' Late Loss Was First Of It's Kind In NHL Postseason History

Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman

Bruins' Late Loss Was First Of It's Kind In NHL Postseason History originally appeared on NESN. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Boston Bruins' loss to the Buffalo Sabres in game one of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs was gut-wrenching.

The Bruins did not trail a single time in the first 52 minutes of play. Morgan Geekie started the scoring quickly with a goal in the first ten minutes of the first period. A scoreless second gave way to an Elias Lindholm goal right after the third period started. Boston held this two-goal lead for 11 minutes, with Jeremy Swayman pitching a 50+ minute shutout.

But with a little less than eight minutes left to play, Sabres superstar Tage Thompson stole the puck behind Swayman’s cage and was able to tuck it in before the goaltender knew what happened.

The game went on 2-1 for three minutes, until Thompson lit the lamp once more after another defensive zone turnover from Boston to knot it up for the first time all game.

That’s when things got out of hand.

Less than a minute later, Buffalo’s Mattias Samuelsson gave the Sabres their first lead of the game. A minute after that, Alex Tuch put the nail in the coffin with an empty-netter. Buffalo scored four goals in six and a half minutes, three of which came over the span of just three minutes and four seconds.

It was a nauseating flurry of goals that left Bruins fans speechless and, unspurpsingly, had never been done before, according to analytics company Stats Perform.

“The Buffalo 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,” the company posted on X.

More NHL: Bruins Vow To Learn From Third Period Collapse In Game 1