Bruins Playing Their Game Against The Sabres -

The Boston Bruins continued to play their game on Tuesday night and scored a 4-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center.

The win evened the best-of-seven first-round playoff series at one game each and allowed the Bruins to steal home ice advantage as the matchup now moves to TD Garden in Boston for games three and four beginning Thursday. Except for the Sabres’ dramatic late third-period comeback to win game one, the Bruins have been in control for much of the series to this point.

Boston’s commitment to strong physical play has had the Sabres off balance for significant stretches of the first two contests. The Bruins took a game plan that nearly allowed them to emerge victorious in game one and amped up that strong play even further in Game 2. Boston built an insurmountable 4-0 lead early in the third period, before Buffalo chipped away at the deficit to make the final 4-2.

“The guys played great today, “ said Boston Head Coach Marco Sturm after Tuesday’s Bruins victory. “They played to our identity. That was Bruins hockey right from the start to finish.”

Sabres Focusing On The Wrong Things

The Sabres have spent far too much time focusing on Boston’s physicality; they’ve gotten away from the style of play that won them the Atlantic Division title. Instead of building on the speed and playmaking ability that pulled out the game one, the Sabres are engaged in a battle that is not playing to their strengths. The Buffalo power play has gone 0 for 9 in the series so far, failing to make the Bruins pay a price for time they’ve spent in the penalty box and providing Boston with increased confidence as each Sabres man advantage is killed off by Boston.

The Sabres need to get back to what they do best to find their footing as the series goes on.

“The first two games were really hard fought, “ said Sabres center Josh Norris, on Wednesday’s off-day media availability. ’“We knew that coming into the series, we knew it wasn’t going to be an easy series, (and) we knew they were going to push back yesterday. It’s just on us to reset and get back to our game and really get after them tomorrow (game 3)

The Sabres will need to recapture the speed and skill that were on display in the third period on Sunday and do it quickly as the scene now shifts to Beantown, as the Bruins will look to take control of the series on home ice.