Sabres win first playoff game in 15 years in dramatic fashion, stun Bruins with epic third period comeback

The Buffalo Sabres made their archetypal playoff crippled successful 14 years, 1 they would ne'er forget.

The Sabres scored 4 goals successful the past 8 minutes of the crippled to travel backmost and bushed the Boston Bruins 4-3 successful electrifying manner to instrumentality a 1-0 bid pb connected Sunday nighttime astatine KeyBank Center.

The Bruins quieted the raucous Buffalo assemblage erstwhile prima halfway Morgan Geekie buried a slap changeable into the backmost of the nett from the precocious slot to springiness them a 1-0 pb astir 11 minutes into the archetypal period.

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Buffalo Sabres players observe a extremity by defenseman Mattias Samuelsson during the 3rd play of Game 1 of a first-round NHL Stanley Cup playoff bid against the Boston Bruins successful Buffalo, New York, connected April 19, 2026. (Jeffrey T. Barnes/AP Photo)

The Bruins, aft a scoreless 2nd period, extended their pb successful the 3rd period. With conscionable implicit a infinitesimal successful the 3rd period, Elias Lindholm snuck a wrist changeable down Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen for a 2-0 lead.

The Sabres yet broke done against Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman erstwhile Team USA prima Tage Thompson snuck astir from down the nett and backhanded the puck betwixt Swayman and the station to chopped the shortage successful half.

Thompson, who led the Sabres with 40 goals successful the regular season, wasn’t done yet. About 3 and a fractional minutes aft helium scored the archetypal goal, helium snagged the puck distant from a Bruins defenseman successful beforehand of the nett and snapped 1 location past Swayman to necktie the crippled astatine 2-2.

The Sabres took the pb conscionable 52 seconds later, with the deafening assemblage inactive jubilant from Thompson’s 2nd goal.

As the nationalist code announcer was speechmaking disconnected the game-tying goal, Mattias Samuelsson ripped a changeable from the slot past Swayman to springiness the squad a 3-2 lead.

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Buffalo Sabres halfway Tage Thompson celebrates a extremity during the 3rd play of Game 1 of a first-round NHL Stanley Cup playoff bid against the Boston Bruins successful Buffalo, New York, connected April 19, 2026. (Jeffrey T. Barnes/AP Photo)

"It was astir apt the loudest I’ve ever heard successful my life," Luukkonen said. "The fans are the ones who person waited truthful long. And truthful I’m truly blessed that we grinded retired a triumph tonight."

The Sabres scored an empty-net extremity to marque it 4-2, but the Bruins scored 1 soon aft to marque it 4-3, and the Sabres held connected for the win.

"These are the benignant of games you unrecorded for," Thompson said, via NHL.com. "You privation to beryllium successful these games. It’s been a agelong clip coming."

For the Sabres, the comeback triumph had been a agelong clip coming. They went 5,473 days betwixt playoff games since losing Game 7 of a 2011 first-round bid to the Philadelphia Flyers.

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Buffalo Sabres fans observe during the 3rd play of Game 1 of a first-round NHL Stanley Cup playoff bid against the Boston Bruins successful Buffalo, New York, connected April 19, 2026. (Jeffrey T. Barnes/AP Photo)

The Sabres became the NHL’s eighth squad to rally from a two-or-more-goal shortage successful the last 10 minutes and triumph successful regulation. And it marked conscionable the 2nd clip Buffalo won a playoff crippled erstwhile trailing by 2 successful the 3rd period.

"You could consciousness the gathering shaking, adjacent upstairs I conjecture they said the aforesaid thing," Sabres manager Lindy Ruff said, according to NHL.com. "The ambiance was unbelievable. It was large to springiness our fans that 3rd period."

The Sabres volition look to instrumentality a 2-0 bid pb erstwhile they play the Bruins connected Tuesday astatine 7:30 p.m. ET.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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