Bruins need more from top forwards after Game 3 loss

A couple of the Sabres' top players left the door open for the Bruins in Thursday night's Game 3 at TD Garden. Boston's top players were unable to take advantage, and Buffalo came away with a 3-1 win to take a 2-1 series lead.

With the Bruins leading 1-0 midway through the second period, Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin slashed Viktor Arvidsson on a breakaway, handing him a penalty shot. When Buffalo led 2-1 late in the third, Dahlin and alternate captain Tage Thompson took penalties less than three minutes apart to give Boston a pair of late power plays.

In all three cases, the Bruins couldn't capitalize. Arvidsson tried to beat Alex Lyon stick-side on his penalty shot attempt, but was denied.

The Bruins' first of two late power plays was a disaster, from both the first and second unit. They mustered just one shot attempt while turning the puck over multiple times. The Sabres actually had more shot attempts while shorthanded (2).

The second power play was better, as the Bruins got more zone time, had crisper puck movement, and fired four shots on Lyon, including a pair of dangerous one-timers off the sticks of Morgan Geekie and Charlie McAvoy. But, they still couldn't score. Noah Ostlund tacked on an empty-netter two minutes later to finalize the score line.

This was the tightest-checking game of the series yet, especially at 5-on-5. The two teams combined for a meager five high-danger chances at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick (three for the Sabres, two for the Bruins). Both power plays were also held in check, with the Bruins finishing 0-for-4 and the Sabres 0-for-5.

But the Sabres made that one extra play offensively that the Bruins didn't. Ostlund, playing his first game of the series after missing the first two due to injury, made an excellent pass to set up Bowen Byram on their first goal. On the second, scored by Alex Tuch, Buffalo's top line turned in a dominant offensive-zone shift against the Bruins' second line and the Hampus Lindholm-Mason Lohrei D pair – a shift that, to be fair, included Tuch getting away with an elbow to Lohrei's face.

The Bruins had one moment like that, and it came from their fourth line. Mark Kastelic and Tanner Jeannot delivered a wrecking-ball shift with multiple big hits before Jeannot buried his first career playoff goal.

They needed something, anything from anyone on their top three lines, but it never came. Their top line of Geekie, David Pastrnak and Elias Lindholm got outchanced 7-2 at 5-on-5. Pastrnak finished minus-3 on the night. Lindholm got pulled from the top power-play unit on the final man advantage of the game.

The second line of Arvidsson, Pavel Zacha and Casey Mittelstadt was too quiet at 5-on-5 for the second time in three games this series. Zacha had some chances on the power play, but couldn't bury them. Zacha and Mittelstadt, along with Pastrnak, were pinned in the defensive zone for the Tuch goal that proved to be the game-winner.

The third line of James Hagens, Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov, which showed a lot of encouraging signs in Games 1 and 2 despite not scoring, finally looked inexperienced in Game 3. They managed just one shot on goal at 5-on-5, and Hagens saw the Sabres' first goal deflect in off his stick.

That "kids line" having an off night is at least understandable. The first and second lines generating so little offensively is a tougher pill to swallow.

The good news for the Bruins is that it's not like those lines have been shut down all series. Pastrnak had five points in the first two games. Geekie had four. The second line bounced back from a quiet Game 1 with a dominant Game 2. The power play scored in each of the first two games.

If any one of those units had broken through Thursday night, Game 3 might have been a different story. If the Bruins want Game 4 to be a different story, their top forwards will need to respond.