'We're going to win the game': Sabres close out Bruins for first playoff series victory since 2007
Mark May 1, 2026, as a red-letter date in a spring of blue and gold. Together, the Sabres shook the remains of a nearly 20-year-old albatross off their collective neck
Lindy Ruff took an extremely calculated gamble Friday morning, ahead of Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs first-round series.
Instead of the mandatory morning skate at TD Garden, the Buffalo Sabres' head coach gave his team the morning off from the rink. It was the morning of the biggest game in years for the Sabres.
It was less than three days after the Sabres squandered a chance to close out the best-of-seven series against the Boston Bruins at KeyBank Center.
Ruff had a purpose in the gambit.
“I wanted them to come here, only once today, just to be ready to play,” the Sabres coach said.
Ruff said it all just after he had led the Sabres to a 4-1 win against the Boston Bruins in Game 6 of the series Friday night at TD Garden, and to their first playoff-series win since the spring of 2007. He had to add one of his wry remarks in the afterglow.
Teammates congratulate Sabres goaltender Alex Lyon on a 4-1 victory over the Boston Bruins in Game 6 of their
first-round Stanley Cup playoff series Friday at TD Garden in Boston. Harry Scull, Buffalo News
“And just to keep them away from you guys,” Ruff said, atop the post-game podium, looking down at the collection of reporters and television cameras in the post-game media room. “There’s a lot of pressure inside a series, from game to game, to losing the home game. I really felt we didn’t need to come here and have a morning skate or even make it optional to come here.”
The Sabres made the most of that Friday night visit to TD Garden. They gave themselves no choice. Likely, they didn’t want to return to KeyBank Center and play a winner-take-all Game 7 against the Bruins. They may have wanted the weekend off, too, but never actually said as much, even though the grind of an NHL playoff series is no small thing.
They simply had to close out Game 6. They beat one of the NHL’s top goalies in Jeremy Swayman. They asserted themselves in the offensive zone and clamped down in the slot area of the defensive zone, the better to protect goalie Alex Lyon.
Lyon made 25 saves, in kind, and helped the Sabres silence the capacity crowd at TD Garden.
Mark May 1, 2026, as a red-letter date in a spring of blue and gold.
Together, the Sabres shook the remains of a nearly 20-year-old albatross off their collective neck and won their first playoff series.
“It was unreal,” Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin said. “I liked how we attacked the series as a team. A lot of experienced guys, playing the way we did, all series, it’s pretty cool. We have good things ahead. We can learn a lot from this, but I love what we did in this series.”
The Sabres advance to the second round and will face either Montreal or Tampa Bay, with a series start date and time to be announced.
The Lightning host the Canadiens in Game 7 of their first-round series at 6 p.m. Sunday at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa. The Sabres hold home-ice advantage in the second round against either team by virtue of winning the Atlantic Division championship.
Sabres coach Lindy Ruff shakes hands with Boston Bruins coach Marco Sturm after the Sabres' 4-1 victory in
Game 6 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series Friday night at TD Garden in Boston. Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News
Consider that this year’s Sabres had never been to the playoffs together as a team before this spring. Ruff, a coaching veteran of more than 30 years, knew the nerves that come ahead of a clinching scenario, and he had a few words for his team before the Sabres stepped onto the ice for Game 6.
“I told them, ‘We’re going to win the game,’ ” Ruff said. “I said, ‘We are going to win the series.’ We’ve got to do some things better, but we are going to win the game.”
Alex Tuch gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead at 3:25 of the first period when he redirected a pass from Dahlin from the left circle past Swayman (22 saves). Then, defenseman Mattias Samuelsson fired a wrist shot through traffic from the point, off a setup by Peyton Krebs, that beat a screened Swayman at 12:26 of the first.
Three nights after his overtime goal sent the series back to Boston, Bruins right wing David Pastrnak cut the lead to 2-1 on a one-timer from the left circle off a pass from Pavel Zacha at 1:54 of the second.
Josh Doan took a hard hit into the boards less than six minutes into the third from Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy, but threaded a pass from the corner to Zach Benson, who beat Swayman with a rocket from the slot to make it 3-1 at 5:58 of the third.
“I doubt we were really close to finishing the series at home, and we would have loved to do that, Tuch said. “We wanted to just come out and attack, just have that mindset of just playing our game, playing fast, getting pucks and bodies to the net, and just trying to win, any way we can.”
Those final minutes became a matter of patience and persistence for the Sabres after Benson’s goal.
“It was an exciting time,” Doan said. “A little bit of nerves in that third period, to start, just knowing what’s at stake and knowing what 20 minutes leads to. I think we handled it really well, and those last couple of minutes and seconds are super-special, to this group.”
The Bruins’ frustration boiled over late, particularly after Benson took McAvoy into the boards. McAvoy retaliated by taking a woodchopper’s swing at Benson with his stick, as Benson skated away, with 1:31 left in the game.
“You don’t want to see the last play of the game, you don’t want to see a guy take a chop like that, at somebody else,” Ruff said, even after McAvoy was assessed a five-minute major for slashing. “I haven’t looked at the play. I think he feels Benson tripped him on the play or took his feet out from under him. Our thoughts on the end of the game were just to get through the end of the game. We’re not going to try to score. We’re just going to get through the game.”
Finally, the horn sounded, ending the game and the series. The Sabres and Bruins walked through the ceremonial handshake line, and Lyon considered what helped his team close out the series.
“It’s meaningful in that the organization hasn’t done it, in quite a while,” Lyon said. “That’s probably a big part of fit. But we’re learning, every game. That’s kind of what’s fun. I find we’re learning how to handle different situations and learning on the fly. It’s fun to be a part of that.
“When you put in a lot of work and effort into a series and you come out on the right side of it, against a great organization and a really responsible team, it feels good.”