The Buffalo Sabers weren't about to fool the Boston Bruins twice.
The Sabers stunned the Bruins with four third period goals to steal Game 1 of the series between the Atlantic Division foes.
However, Boston got its revenge in Game 2, scoring three goals in the middle frame, and another quick goal early in the third on Tuesday night, resulting in a 4–2 Bruins victory that tied the series with Buffalo.
Sabers goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen blamed himself.
"It's my fault," Luukkonen said. "There is no way around it."
Trailing 1-0 on the backend of the second period, the Bruins' Morgan Geikie delivered a backhanded clear lob from center ice to the Sabres' zone. A favorable layup went Boston's way, Luukkonen calmly dodged it to give the Bruins a 2–0 lead.
That's when the game started to spiral for the Sabres.
Tage Thompson took an interference penalty shortly thereafter, leading 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 to avoid it. It can't go in," Luukkonen said. "I kind of read a bad read about it, but that's about it. I was trying to get to it before it flipped, but when you start questioning yourself and doing things like that, you get bad bounces. It's unfortunate, but you've got to play through it."
Well, Luukkonen missed only 16 seconds of the third period, allowing Viktor Arvidsson to score his second goal of the night to make the game 4–0. Sabers head coach Lindy Ruff immediately pulled him for Alex Lyons.
And as Luukkonen said, he clearly questioned himself.
Ruff turned to Alex Lyons for the remainder of the third period and suddenly Buffalo's confidence was restored.
The Lyon side made his job easy as he only saw seven shots and made seven saves.
That's because Buffalo played most of the final frame in the offensive zone, outscoring Jeremy Swayman on 20 shots in the third period and scoring twice on the sticks of Bowen Byram and Peyton Krebs.
In fact, Ruff even said that Game 3 could go to Lyon instead of Luukkonen.
“I think if you look at the year and the way it unfolded and how successful we were when we were rotating goaltenders, and then Alex [Lyon] Got injured, so he missed a few games, but just felt there might be a chance we would need him," Ruff said. "Could play the next game, but just give him a period of playing time, because he hasn't played in a while."
This is where inexperience could hurt them for the Sabres.
Buffalo began the 2025–26 season quite inconsistently, but proceeded to win the Atlantic Division through December for the rest of the season.
However, this is the first time in 14 seasons that the Sabers have been back to the playoffs. Most of the roster, including Luukkonen, had never held the position before.
Luukkonen and Lyon split the load for the surging Sabers this season. However, it is ideal to hopefully make a run with a goaltender in the postseason
