Ullmark earns win in B’s debut
Free-agent goaltender makes 35 saves against former team
BUFFALO — The Buffalo Sabres burst to a jackrabbit 3-0 record to start the season in hopes of shedding their running punchline status. On Friday night at KeyBank Center, they showed some of the jump that led to that early eye-opening record.
The Sabres are still not in the same class as the Bruins, however.
Despite being outshot and outplayed for stretches on Friday night, the B’s made the most of their opportunities and came away with a 4-1 win. The B’s can also start to feel good about the four-year, $20 million investment they made in Linus Ullmark, who nabbed the win in his Bruins’ debut, and against his former team no less.
“It’s definitely going to be one of those lifelong memories, for sure,” said Ullmark. “It was very special.”
Ullmark stopped 35 of 36 shots and lost his shutout bid with 5:25 left when Victor Olofsson got behind Derek Forbort and snapped one between Ullmark’s pads. Other than that, Ullmark had everything going for him, including lady luck at times.
“I thought he was awesome. He held us in that game throughout the first two periods especially there were some chances we needed to clean up in front of our net” said Brandon Carlo. “He was a brick wall tonight. He played very well. I loved his puck play. I connected well with him in the first period playing the puck and I feel like we’re getting a little more comfort in that regard. I thought his first game was fantastic.”
The Bruins forged a 2-0 lead in a first period in which they were, shall we say, economical with their chances.
The Sabres held a 15-7 shot advantage and had some solid opportunities in that bunch, but Ullmark was very good in the first period. And when he wasn’t good, he was fortunate.
First, the B’s took an early lead on David Pastrnak’s first of the season. Brad Marchand gave Rasmus Dahlin a couple of crosschecks that may have been called in the preseason but were judged to be hunky-dory Friday night. He knocked Dahlin off the puck, Patrice Bergeron collected it behind the net and gave it right back to Marchand, who fed Pastrnak for the short-side goal past Craig Anderson at 3:49.
For a good chunk of the period after the first goal, the Sabres had a strong territorial edge but Ullmark held the fort. It was sliding so badly in the wrong direction that coach Bruce Cassidy made an earlier than usual line switch, flipping right wings Tomas Nosek and Craig Smith (Smith had a maintenance day on Thursday and didn’t seem up to speed), and then moving Nosek to the middle with Charlie Coyle and Taylor Hall on the wings.
And it worked almost immediately, as the new Nosek line doubled the B’s lead at 16:19.
Nosek gained the blue line and fed Hall in the middle, who in turn dished to Coyle on the right wing. Coyle had a good chance to shoot the puck short-side but his feed to Nosek at the top of the crease was perfect for a tapin. It was Nosek’s first as a Bruin.
“I know what I said the other day, I thought the pieces fit. I guess they un-fit,” joked Cassidy. “Listen, we’re trying to get Coyle and Hall going together, but maybe have somebody else in the middle and have Charlie go to the wing. It worked for today. Sometimes those are attention-getters, sometimes you find solutions as well.”
But the B’s were lucky to escape the first without a scoreboard blemish after they took back-to-back penalties at the end of the period. On the first Buffalo PP, it appeared Dylan Cozens had scored when he slipped a backhander through Ullmark’s legs, but the puck hit the goalie’s back skate on the goal line and ricocheted out. Ullmark counted his blessings.
“It felt like it trickled in. It was kind of a broken play. When the puck didn’t hit my right pad, it felt like it was going to go in,” said Ullmark,
The B’s did not squander their first power-play chance after Dahlin hooked Pastrnak on a good scoring chance. On the man-advantage, the first unit was changing out for the second when they cashed in at 5:17. Marchand, operating just outside the right dot, made a glittering pass to Coyle in the left circle and Coyle was able to snap it through Anderson’s short side.
“Good for Charlie. He shot the puck, something we want more out of (him) in any situation. I’m happy for him. He made a good play on the (Nosek) goal, too, with the backdoor pass,” said Cassidy.
After Olofsson spoiled Ullmark’s shutout bid, Hall made it even more interesting took when he took an illadvised offensive zone tripping penalty with 3:58 left, much to the delight of the sparse Buffalo crowd who never saw the explosiveness Hall has shown in Boston in his short stint in Buffalo.
But the fans didn’t like it so much when the B’s killed off the penalty and Hall was there to emphatically pound home the empty-netter to finish the Sabres off.