Recap: Zboril’s first NHL goal, two from Bergeron lift Bruins over Sabres

While it may not have been a clinical, wire-to-wire win, the Bruins did enough to head out of Buffalo with a victory.

Jakub Zboril’s first NHL goal late in the third broke a 1-1 tie, and Patrice Bergeron would add his second of the night a few minutes later to send the B’s to a 3-1 win.

Things didn’t exactly get off to a great start for the Bruins, as we learned why David Krejci chose forward over defense on Tage Thompson’s shorthanded goal. 1-0 Sabres.

That would be all the scoring for quite a while, until Bergeron collected a loose puck on the power play and beat Craig Anderson to make it a 1-1 game with 1:09 left in the second period.

The teams traded chances in a free-flowing third period, but there was nothing doing until Zboril’s shot through traffic beat Anderson to make it 2-1 Bruins with 7:29 left in the third period.

Not content to just run out the clock, we saw another bit of magic from the Pastrnak-Marchand-Bergeron connection, with Bergeron finishing it off to make it 3-1 Bruins.

And that was it! The B’s end their brief road trip with two points out of a possible two.

Game notes

• Not a bad Bruins debut from Keith Kinkaid, eh? The Yellow-Padded Maestro made 30 stops on the night, and several that you could call great saves. He was particularly good during the few runs of play where the ice was tilted in Buffalo’s favor. You can’t ask for a much better performance than that from your back-up.
• It was great to see Jakub Zboril get on the board, and even better that the goal ended up being the game-winner. Zboril’s gone through some ups and downs performance-wise lately, so hopefully something like this can serve as a confidence boost.
• Just as he was for Jakub Lauko’s first NHL goal, Nick Foligno was right there for Zboril’s. I’m not saying he’s a first goal wizard, but I’m not saying he’s not a first goal wizard.
• The hand-eye coordination on Pastrnak prior to Bergeron’s second goal was just ridiculous.
• Unless I missed an injury, which is entirely possible, Craig Smith found himself limited to spot duty in this one, skating just under eight minutes (though a minute of that was on the power play).
• Overall, this was the game some of you mentioned expecting in the comments on the preview: a scrappy, tightly played game. The Sabres were undoubtedly looking for a push-back after the Vegas game, and while they gave the Bruins a good fight, it ultimately wasn’t enough. The B’s have been in their fair share of offensive slugfests so far this season, so it’s encouraging to see a win in a close game like this.

No rest for the victors! The B’s will host Vancouver tomorrow at a Super Bowl Sunday-esque start time of 6 PM.