Goalie Crisis Already? Sabres Face Dilemma After Game 2 Spiral

Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images

The Buffalo Sabres weren’t going to fool the Boston Bruins twice.

The Sabres shocked the Bruins with four third-period goals to steal Game 1 of the series between Atlantic Division foes.

However, Boston got their revenge in Game 2, scoring three goals in the middle frame, and tallied another quick one at the start of the third on Tuesday night, resulting in a 4-2 victory for the Bruins which tied the series going back to Buffalo.

Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen blamed himself.

“That’s my fault,” Luukkonen said. “There’s no way around it.”

Trailing 1-0 at the backend of the second period, Bruins Morgan Geekie lobbed a backhanded clear from center ice toward the Sabres’ zone. A favorable bounce went Boston’s way, sneaking by Luukkonen, giving the Bruins a 2-0 lead.

That’s when the game began to spiral for the Sabres.

Tage Thompson soonafter took an interference penalty, which led to Pavel Zacha’s first goal of the series on the power play, and a 3-0 lead for Boston.

“It’s a bad bounce, but there’s no way around it. That can’t go in,” Luukkonen said. “I just kind of made a bad read on it, but that’s about it. I was trying to get to it before it bounced, but when you kind of start to question yourself and stuff like that, then you get the bad bounces. It’s unfortunate, but got to play through it.”

Well, Luukkonen didn’t play through it just 16 seconds into the third period, letting Viktor Arvidsson score his second goal of the night to make it a 4-0 game. Sabres head coach pulled him right away for .