Winners of their last three, the Boston Bruins defeated the Buffalo Sabres, 3-1, behind a gritty comeback effort on display at KeyBank Center on Saturday — notching their 13th win in the 2022-23 campaign’s first 15 contests.
Prior to puck drop, the Bruins entered the night plus-14 in the third period, good enough for best in the NHL.
Bruins first-year head coach Jim Montgomery credited his team’s depth, which featured a few unsung heroes.
“It’s really deep,” Montgomery said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “Great job by Keith, giving us an opportunity to stay in it for two periods and then in the third period, for whatever reason, that’s been our best period all year. The guys played really well as a five-man unit in every zone and great job by Zboril getting the game-winner for us.”
Montgomery added: “It shows we can grind out wins in a lot of different ways. … We can score, we can defend and we can check. And if you wanna play rough and physical, we can do that too.”
Bruins longtime veteran and captain Patrice Bergeron, who delivered the game-tying goal in the second period just before the second intermission to spark Boston’s comeback, credited the “resilience” displayed by the team along with their third-option goaltender — delivering a remarkable performance through his first start with Boston.
“Big resilience, finding ways to win hockey games,” Bergeron said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “It’s not always going to be your A game — it definitely wasn’t. I’m not sure if it was an A or B game tonight. First 40 was tough, and I thought the third (period) was a lot better and we got the result. A lot of great saves by (Kinkaid) and got us going, obviously, to get the lead.
Here are more notes from Saturday’s Bruins-Sabres game:
— Bergeron extended his points streak to three games, scoring two goals with one assist in the stretch.
— The Bruins improved to 13-2 after their first 15 games to begin a season since 1930. That Bruins team proceeded to win 19 of their first 21 games.
— Boston has outscored opponents 23-7 in the third period this season.
“I think it’s confidence,” Bergeron said. “Right now, in the third, we talked about it in between the second and third. … We’re successful when we play Bruins hockey, especially in that last 20 — we got back to playing on our toes and playing hard, and being on the forecheck, and getting some pucks back. … With that being said, it was much better.”
— Bruins goalie Keith Kinkaid, making his debut start with Boston, earned his first win since Dec. 15, 2021, against the Arizona Coyotes as a member of the New York Rangers.
“I just wanted to give my team a shot and they did the rest,” Kinkaid said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “… Everybody’s been great. This is a really — probably one of the best groups I’ve ever been a part of. So, it’s really something special to be a part of. … I kinda just do whatever it takes to keep the puck out, and sometimes it works.”
— The Bruins, winners of three straight games, return to Boston on Sunday, facing off against the Vancouver Canucks. Puck drop from TD Garden is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, live on NESN.
