After a long wait for playoff glory, the Sabres missed their chance to close out the series at home as David Pastrnak's overtime heroics sent the battle back to Boston.
BUFFALO — The sold-out crowd at KeyBank Center was ready to explode in celebration, but Boston Bruins star David Pastrnak had other plans.
With the Buffalo Sabres pressing in overtime, the Bruins took advantage of a line change, and Hampus Lindholm found Pastrnak for a breakaway. The end result was the overtime-winner for the Bruins, sending their first-round Stanley Cup playoffs series back to Boston.
"We are neighbors, so we always call it the 'neighbor connection,' " Pastrnak said of the play. "It's just great plays, great eyes. It seems like anytime he has the puck and I have an opening, I have the confidence that he's going to find me."
It was a real turning point for the Bruins, who used their tight defending to survive a talented Sabres team.
While Buffalo was able to carry the pace of play, they simply couldn't capitalize on many of their scoring chances. For Pastrnak, it was a chance to show up in a big way in a series where he had otherwise looked a little absent as the club's top superstar.
"I'm just very happy because this guy puts a lot of pressure on himself, and he wants to be the difference," Bruins coach Marco Sturm said of Pastrnak. "Today he was."
Before the game, the Sabres and their fan base had all the momentum.
After defeating the Bruins in both games in Boston — including a 6-1 drubbing in Game 4 — the Sabres weren't able to fully extend the knife into their opponents.
Maybe it was the pressure of the moment. For a team that hadn't been in the playoffs for the last 14 years, there's a fair share of inexperience to go around, and the hardest game to win is always the fourth one.
"I said this morning, it's going to be a really hard hockey game. It was a hard hockey game. We had two or three really good chances that we didn't quite hit on in the third period," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "Even in overtime, we're looking to make a pass for a guy on a breakaway and we hit a stick. They're changing, and it ends up going the other way."
Sabres fans were eager to see their team finish the job. The staff would have liked it, too; a win would have given the club a few days off before meeting either the Montreal Canadiens or the Tampa Bay Lightning. The crowd would have spilled onto the streets outside of the arena and celebrated into the early hours of the morning.
But now the Sabres ship off to Boston, looking to try and win a third game at TD Garden with the series lead narrowed to 3-2.
If the Sabres are to have any success, they must find a way to challenge goaltender Jeremy Swayman. Boston's defense allowed him to see every shot on Tuesday. Buffalo's strength is skill, while Boston's is defense; the Sabres must flex that skill harder if they are to win a playoff series for the first time since 2007.
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