Takeaways: Defence delivers, Lyon roars as Sabres bust another major drought

The Buffalo Sabres ended one major drought already this year. Now, they’ve busted an even bigger one.

The Sabres, in the playoffs for the first time since 2011, downed the Boston Bruins 4-1 on Friday night at TD Garden in Boston to clinch a six-game, first-round victory over their Atlantic Division rivals. The triumph marks the first playoff series win for Buffalo since it defeated the New York Rangers in the second round of the 2007 post-season.

If you thought Western New York was amped already, prepare for the party to hit a whole other level.

While it’s not a surprise to see the favoured Sabres advance — after all, Buffalo finished atop the Atlantic and is the second seed in the Eastern Conference draw — their path to victory is a bit unexpected. The Bruins had the second-best home record in the regular season, yet Buffalo blanked the B’s in their own barn, winning Games 3, 4 and 6 as the visitor.

Now, they’ll return home and await the winner of Tampa Bay and Montreal, who play Game 7 on Sunday night. 

Obviously, the Sabres hope they’re just getting started. But before we turn the page, let’s take a closer look at the decisive contest from this first-round set.

Sabres defence delivers

The Sabres' blueline corps was a story the entire series, and that continued in Game 6. The opening goal came just 3:25 into the contest, courtesy of Alex Tuch. The strike was created, though, thanks to some great work by Buffalo captain Rasmus Dahlin. The D-man took a pass high in the zone, weaved his way down low and whipped a pass across the front of the net to Tuch, who tapped it home.

Then, still in the first, Mattias Samuelsson scored what proved to be the game-winner when he put a shot on goal from inside the blueline that found its way through some bodies and past Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman. 

Samuelsson, of course, delivered a huge go-ahead goal very late in Game 1, which propelled the Sabres to a win. 

As good as Dahlin — who finished with two points — and Samuelsson were in the close-out game, the second pair of Bowen Byram and Owen Power was prolific throughout the series. Byram had three goals and five points against the Bruins, while Power wound up with four assists in six games. 

The Sabres are most dangerous when their active defence is helping drive the offence, and that was certainly the case against the Bruins. 

Alex Lyon comes in and roars

It was 1-0 Sabres when Casey Mittelstadt caught the Sabres on a horrible line change and went in all alone on Alex Lyon. Mittelstadt got not one, but two cracks at a goal and Lyon denied them both. 

It’s easy to forget the feeling around the Sabres when, halfway through Game 2, Morgan Geekie scored on Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen with a dump-in from the red line. Later in the contest — which the Bruins won easily — Lyon came into the game and got his feet wet.

He wound up being stellar for the Sabres, posting a .955 save percentage in the series while collecting three wins.

Buffalo had three goalies — Luukkonen, Lyon and Colten Ellis — contribute this year, and Lyon has obviously stepped forward and seized the net.

Who knows, maybe we’ll see UPL take another twirl in the crease as the post-season wears on. For now, though, the Sabres are in good hands with Lyon at the helm.

More Tuchs for another Alex

In a sea of inexperience, Alex Tuch stands alone as the one Sabre with plenty of post-season action on his resume, thanks to this time with the Vegas Golden Knights. And — surprise, surprise — Tuch led the Sabres with four goals versus the Bruins after landing the first blow in Game 6.

His strike on Friday was vintage Tuch, as he drove the net with his stick on the ice, ready to redirect Dahlin’s perfect pass.

The 11 Sabres who played their first-ever NHL post-season contest in Game 1 already now possess a chunk of valuable experience, having completed this six-game win over the Bruins. Still, you have to believe Tuch — the hometown boy with a host of big-game exposure — will continue to be a massive player for this squad when it matters most. 

Bruins flat firsts at home

To be fair, Boston wasn’t nearly as bad to open Game 6 at home as it was in Game 4. Still, that’s a low bar to clear considering the Bruins allowed four first-period goals in that game and the B’s certainly didn’t do themselves any favours by once again falling behind early in their own building.

Given their regular-season dominance in domestic settings, it’s shocking to see Boston lose all three of its home contests in this series. When the Bruins are licking their wounds this summer, they’ll have to wonder how they were so unprepared to handle the Buffalo attack early in those home outings.

Top Boston sticks go silent

When David Pastrnak scored just 1:54 into the second period to cut Buffalo’s 2-0 lead in half, it gave the Bruins life and made it seem possible they could overcome their slow start.

However, the team could not scrounge up another goal the rest of the way, and that was indicative of how things went after Game 2 in this series. We only had a Game 6 because Pastrnak played the role of overtime hero in Boston’s 2-1 Game 5 victory, and his two goals were really the only two strikes Boston got from a top-six forward in the final four outings. (Elias Lindholm found the net in Game 5, but he was centring the third line in that contest).

Boston’s path to victory in this matchup was always going to be using strong goaltending from Jeremy Swayman to keep games close, while hoping the top guys could kick in enough scoring to get one more than the Sabres. Swayman delivered on his end, but the likes of Pavel Zacha and Morgan Geekie did not come through in the final four games and that killed the Bruins. 

Losing Viktor Arvidsson — who had a pair of goals in Game 2 — for Games 5 and 6 certainly hurt, but Boston needed some other snipers to step up.

The fact that nobody besides Pastrnak did is a big reason an overall positive season for the Bruins came to an end in front of their own fans on Friday.