BUFFALO -- Anton Khudobin was outstanding and led the Boston Bruins to a 3-0 victory over the Buffalo Sabres Tuesday night at KeyBank Center. He finished with 36 saves to post his first shutout of the season. Jake DeBrusk, Tim Schaller (empty net) and David Backes (empty net) scored for the Bruins.
Boston Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy was candid after the team's 7-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets Monday night at TD Garden. While he was happy with the contributions from the likes of Danton Heinen, DeBrusk and Anders Bjork, Cassidy was quick to point out that the team is playing back-to-back games, so he wanted to see how these young players would respond 24 hours later when the Bruins faced the Sabres.
Fortunately, Khudobin proved crucial. He was composed for the entire game and made posted the victory after losing his last two starts.
PREGAME NOTES
What have you done lately: The Bruins are 1-1-1 in their last three games. But, after Monday's victory over the Blue Jackets, Boston is 10-3-1 in its last 14 games. The road has also been kind to the Bruins of late, posting a 5-1-0 mark in the last six in enemy territory. Boston is 12-1-3 in its last 16 games against the Sabres. Earlier this season, Buffalo erased a three-goal deficit to post a 5-4 overtime victory against the Bruins at TD Garden. The Sabres played one of their better games of the season on Friday, but dropped a 5-4 decision to the Carolina Hurricanes in OT. North Chelmsford's Jack Eichel recorded his first NHL hat trick in the loss.
Masked men: Since the Bruins are playing the second game of a back-to-back, Cassidy is going with Anton Khudobin in net. He's lost his last two starts. Overall, he's 7-2-2 with a 2.67 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage in 12 games this season. He's 3-1-2 in six career games against Buffalo. The Sabres will counter with Robin Lehner, who is 7-13-4 with a 2.84 and a .911 in 25 games this season. He's 4-10-3 in 18 career games against the Bruins.
Special teams: The Bruins enter the game with the seventh-best power play in the league, going 22-for-105 (21 percent) in 31 games. They've scored eight power-play goals in their last seven games, going 8-for-28 in that span. The Sabres are ranked 30th in this category, scoring only 13 goals on 101 man-advantages. Boston is ninth on the penalty kill, while the Sabres are 12th in the league.
Rolling: David Pastrnak enters tonight's game with a career-best 12-game point streak. It's also the longest current streak in the NHL. He has five goals and eight assists for 13 points in this span.
"I'm just trying to play the same way," Pastrnak said. "I'm getting ready for the games the same and keeping it simple. The puck's been bouncing lately, so it's good and it's good for my confidence. Hopefully it will keep going."
Overall, Pastrnak has 15 goals and 16 assists for 31 points in 31 games this season.
Injury update: Defenseman Adam McQuaid traveled with the team but will not be in the lineup against the Sabres. This will be the 26th game he's missed since breaking his right fibula on Oct. 19. Forward David Krejci, who missed Monday's game with an upper-body injury, did not travel with the team here and he listed as day-to-day.
In regards to the midnight roster freeze, since McQuaid is coming off IR, the Bruins are able to exceed the roster by one if he's activated for the next two games.
Cassidy will go with the same lineup as Monday's.
Observations from the third period
- This is where secondary scoring could prove crucial for the Bruins.
- Khudobin again bails out the Bruins. He's making timely saves again and again.
- Tough night for Boston's power play.
- Chip-and-chase working well for the Bruins.
- Let's see if the Bruins have the ability to close tonight.
- Dobby.
- Sick snipe by DeBrusk to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead. Goes high glove on Lehner's short side.
- Another great save by Khudobin.
- As long as you have control of the puck, you can back into the zone without being offside like Marchand just did.
- Miller and Grzelcyk back together.
- Cassidy changing up the D pairs. Has Brandon Carlo and Matt Grzelcyk together. Kevan Miller with Zdeno Chara. Miller has been outstanding tonight. His best game so far of the season.
- Khudobin has been very composed so far.
- Khudobin finished with 17 saves in the opening period.
- Miller is playing outstanding. That was the best period he's played so far this season.
- Both Pastrnak and Torey Krug shaken up on that last shift because both blocked shots.
- Another example of Patrice Bergeron's ability to get an offensive-zone faceoff when needed.
- Ryan Spooner is known for his skating ability and his tendency to use the 10-and-2 method instead of crossing over. He admitted prior to the game that he's trying to limit the amount of times he does it because he now believes it slows down his forward progress.
- Riley Nash and Miller have both hit the post this period.
- Khudobin is keeping the Bruins in this game right now. Already 14 saves with five minutes remaining in the period.
- Solid reactionary save by Khudobin. He already made a few of those tonight.
- Bergeron going to the box for slashing. Buffalo gets the first power play of the game.
- Twice Eichel has tried to go far shot on Khudobin.
- Krug just saved a would-be goal with a blocked shot on an open net.
- Miller with a big hit on the Sabres' Jacob Josefson and teammate Zach Bogosian takes exception. Miller and Bogosian drop the gloves.
- Spooner nearly scored right off the faceoff. He switched his hands at the last possible second and put the puck on net.