Sabres provide Buffalo a magical night 5,472 days in the making

It wouldn't grow to 2-0 until the third period, this time Elias Lindholm off a rebound. It could've been worse, but Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped a pair of David Pastrnak breakaways to keep it close.

All the while, the Sabres' powerplay failed to cash in, having not scored with a man-up in all of April.

That's when Tage Thompson, the gold medalist and leading scorer, played hero. Twice, he came through from below the goal after impressive forechecks by his teammates.

The first time, Thompson ended up with a little backhand wraparound. The next, a forehand shot low past Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman, who had been his Team USA teammate and had played two-and-a-half brilliant periods Sunday night before things snowballed.

All of a sudden, in almost no time at all, 2-2.

"We've been in situations all season that have prepared us for games like this," Thompson said. "It's another level, and intensity ramps up, but we've been in situations where we've been behind in games and found our way out of it. So when we're in similar situations, we know we can do it again."

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At that point, it felt a bit like destiny. The Sabres, on a night they doubled the Bruins in shots, couldn't lose now, could they?

"After we tied it there, you could feel the energy within the group, the belief within the group," defenseman Mattias Samuelsson said.

When Jack Quinn won a battle near the boards with three-and-a-half minutes left, and Samuelsson saw space to float into near the center of the ice, it sure was fate.

Samuelsson had been a massively impactful player on this night with multiple shot blocks and nine hits. He had earned the right to finish.

"Samuelsson was an absolute stud in the game," Ruff said.

And finish he did. A louder roar may never have been heard in Western New York. It's a wonder the roof of the KeyBank Center didn't fly off.

"The crowd was great all night," Samuelsson said. "(Thompson) got us going, and the place just erupted. You could feel the energy building. As a group, we felt once we cracked them, we felt we could go from there."

Alex Tuch added an empty-netter for good measure, starting celebrations that were sure to last all night in Buffalo. A late tally by the Bruins wouldn't dampen any spirits. This, against so many odds, was the Sabres' night.

"These are the kind of games you live for," Thompson said. "You want to be in these games. It's been a long time coming."

By the time Thompson and Samuelsson took part in their postgame press conference, it was clear they had already shifted their focus to the fact that they have more games to win. Just because this Sabres team hadn't been here in a long time didn't mean they're just happy to be here. They want it all.

The wily coach, though? Ruff knew how special this night had been.

He was asked if it was better than his first-ever playoff win.

"This one right here," Ruff said. "Right here, right now... This was probably the sweetest of all of them."

Ruff had also been asked how he summed it up to the players. And, well, the guy with nearly 1,000 career coaching wins rattled off a summation better than any we could come up with.

"I told them after the game, 'You want experience? You've got it now,'" Ruff said. "I mean, what an experience. You're gonna say this was my first playoff game? You've got a great story to tell."

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