BUFFALO, N.Y. — Mattias Samuelsson scored with 3:24 left and Buffalo overcame a two-goal deficit in the final eight minutes to beat the Boston Bruins 4-3 on Sunday night in the Sabres’ first playoff game in 15 years.
Tage Thompson scored goals 3:42 apart to tie it, and Alex Tuch sealed the victory by scoring into an empty net with 1:12 left in nearly blowing the roof off the arena.
Buffalo hosts Game 2 of the first-round series Tuesday night.
The playoff win was Buffalo’s first at home — and first overall — since a 1-0 victory over Philadelphia in Game 4 of a first-round series April 20, 2011. The Sabres proceeded to lose the series in seven games. The Sabres won their first Atlantic Division this season and snapped an NHL-record 14-season playoff drought.
David Pastrnak scored with 7 seconds remaining and had two assists for Boston. Morgan Geekie and Elias Lindholm also scored for the Bruins, who finished the regular season 33-2-4 when leading after two periods.
After going 5,473 days between playoff games, the Sabres delivered a stunning victory.
Trailing 2-0 after Lindholm scored 1:08 into the third period, Buffalo finally caught a spark from Thompson, who led the team with 40 goals this season.
Thompson’s first goal came on a wraparound backhander with 7:58 remaining. He then tied it by getting to a loose puck to the left of the Boston net and firing a low shot inside the far post with 4:16 remaining.
With the crowd still buzzing, Samuelsson scored 52 seconds later. Teammate Jack Quinn got to the puck deep in the Bruins zone and fed Samuelsson, who snapped a high shot in from the left circle.
This marked just the second time Buffalo overcame a two-goal third-period deficit in the playoffs. The other time also happened against Boston in a Game 4 first-round series-clinching 6-5 overtime win in 1993. It’s best remembered in Buffalo as the “May Day!” game with Brad May scoring the decisive goal to secure the Sabres’ first playoff series victory in a decade.
The Bruins, the Eastern Conference’s seventh-seeded team, unraveled in making their return to the playoffs following a one-year hiatus.
Pastrnak’s three-point outing upped his career playoff total to 909 points and moved him ahead of Cam Neely and Wayne Cashman for ninth on the team list, and two back of Bobby Orr.
