It really shouldn’t come as a major surprise at this point, but the Boston Bruins continue to clearly demonstrate they have “the stuff” to be a playoff team this spring.
It remains to be seen how it’s going to play out for them and Tuesday night’s home loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs was as unimpressive as it gets for the Black and Gold, but it was more than offset by the B’s shaking off some third period troubles to knock off the Sabres in overtime in a 4-3 comeback road victory at the KeyBank Center on Wednesday night.
The win allowed the B’s to open up a three-point cushion on the top wild card playoff spot and pulled them into a tie with the Montreal Canadiens for the third playoff spot in the Atlantic Division, though the Habs hold two games in hand on the Black and Gold entering Thursday.
It was a gutsy “W” for the Bruins, and a super vital character check on the second night of a back-to-back following a really “embarrassing” home loss in the team’s own words.
“I’m proud of the game and the way we answered after [the loss to Toronto]. We played a heck of a team that’s rolling pretty good,” said David Pastrnak, who finished with three points and a plus-3 in a superstar effort on the ice. “A little slow start, we went into the third and they’re a good team and they obviously came hard and scored shorthanded. That can’t happen. But credit to our group for sticking with it and we get the tying goal, and no matter how long it takes we stick with it for a huge two points.”
It’s a funny thing with this Bruins team, as many prognosticators, fans, and followers have been almost anxiously waiting for the bottom to drop out for this group of hockey players, and at every turn, they simply do not let it happen. On Wednesday night, there was a horrendous sequence in the third period for Mason Lohrei where he was burnt by Zach Benson for a shorthanded goal after losing a 1-on-1 battle, and then foolishly took a cross-checking penalty in a fit of pique after Benson scored the tying goal.
Mason Lohrei just unraveling out there pic.twitter.com/iiIGalwFJc
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) March 26, 2026
Jason Zucker finished on the ensuing power play to stun the Bruins with two Buffalo goals in the span of 33 seconds to take the lead in the third period, and many assumed the B’s were cooked at that point.
“[Lohrei] knows he messed up and he needs to get the job done. He’s got to learn the hard way. He’s been pretty damn good all year long,” said Marco Sturm. “He had a tough start and the last three or four games [have been a little off], so now we need to make sure he gets back on track. But mistakes happen and that’s why you have teammates that bail you out.
“It was just a great [team] effort. We’re very happy to grab those two points. Huge points, but I liked the response [in the third period] even better. I still believe that we deserved to win [that one].”
As it’s been on many nights for the Bruins this season, it was a pair of second-line forwards that stepped up when the team needed a play. Casey Mittelstadt scored his 14th goal of the season to tie things up after a Jonathan Aspirot point blast wildly caromed off the end boards to a waiting Mittelstadt at the front of the net.
Casey MIttelstadt 3-3 pic.twitter.com/7XT9ko6pBd
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) March 26, 2026
That set things up for overtime, where Pavel Zacha won the opening faceoff, and the Bruins trio of Zacha, David Pastrnak, and Charlie McAvoy never lost possession of the puck while patiently reloading out of the offensive zone until they got the exact entry they were looking for.
Pastrnak fed Zacha speeding in on the wing, and he beat Ukko Pekka-Luukkonen five-hole for the game-winning score and his career-best 24th score of the season, a game-winner that vaulted their playoff percentage chances into the 70-plus percent mark.
PAVEL ZACHA CALLS GAME 🚨
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) March 26, 2026
Bruins grab a HUGE two points and prevent Buffalo from taking the top spot in the East 😤 pic.twitter.com/ZJDjfZsfhz
“We knew how important this game was and we just kept coming,” said Zacha. “We just