Sean Kuraly scored on a rebound of his own shot with 1:16 remaining in overtime to give the visiting Boston Bruins a 3-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night.
Kuraly broke in from the left side and then fired a wrist shot from the top of the circle that Carter Hutton made a pad save on. However, the rebound bounced in front of the goal, where the charging Kuraly tapped it in for the game-winner.
Jake DeBrusk and Noel Acciari also scored goals for Boston, which snapped a two-game losing streak. Tuukka Rask finished with 26 saves for the Bruins, who improved to 9-1-1 in their last 11 games in Buffalo.
Marco Scandella had a goal and an assist and Johan Larsson had a short-handed goal for Buffalo. Hutton stopped 39 shots while losing for just the second time (7-2-1) in his last 10 home starts.
Scandella gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead at the 4:40 mark of the first period when he put in a rebound of a Jeff Skinner backhand shot past a sprawling Rask for his second goal of the season.
Acciari tied it five minutes later when he pounced on a loose puck in front of the blue line and fired a shot that caromed into the left side of the net off the left knee of Buffalo defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen.
Larsson then gave the Sabres a 2-1 lead early in the second period with his fourth goal of the season, finishing a two-on-one with Evan Rodrigues and beating Rask to his blocker side. The score came while Jack Eichel was serving a double-minor for high-sticking Zdeno Chara, and marked the eighth short-handed goal allowed this season by the Bruins, tied with Pittsburgh for the most in the NHL.
The Bruins tied it with 2:29 to go in the third period on DeBrusk's power play goal on a redirect of a wrist shot from the top of the slot by Torey Krug, setting the stage for Kuraly's game-winner.
Boston now heads to South Bend, Ind., where it will play the Chicago Blackhawks on New Year's Day in the NHL Winter Classic at Notre Dame Stadium.
--Field Level Media
Boston | Buffalo | |
Noel Acciari 1 | Points | Marco Scandella 2 |
Noel Acciari 1 | Goals | Marco Scandella 1 |
Matt Grzelcyk 1 | Assists | Marco Scandella 1 |
Jake DeBrusk 1 | Power Play Goals | N/A |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | Johan Larsson 1 |
Tuukka Rask .929 | Save Percentage | Carter Hutton .929 |
Tuukka Rask 26 | Saves | Carter Hutton 39 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Boston | 42 | 3 | 1-4 | 3-3 | 6 | 27 |
Buffalo | 28 | 2 | 0-3 | 3-4 | 8 | 24 |