Ryan Spooner leads Bruins past Sabres 3-2 in shootout

The Boston left winger skated with speed up ice before putting a seemingly harmless backhand shot past Johnson for his 23rd goal of the season and his eighth goal in the past eight games.

A quick perusal of the box score on Friday morning might simply say that the Bruins barely escaped from lowly Buffalo with a shootout win, but the B’s players thought it was a hard-fought two points against a much improved Sabres team.

“It didn’t surprise me”, Johnson said.

The Bruins carried that momentum past the midway part of the period, and Johnson was forced to make a pair of in-tight stops on Jimmy Hayes. I thought from that point on in the second period we seemed to kind of, not take over the game completely, but we had a better second half to me after Spooner scored.

The Bruins knew very well the games would get tougher and they would have to play better after the All-Star break.

Buffalo had a power play of its own later in the overtime, but the Bruins’ penalty kill stood tall.

This one got off to a slow start with both teams sharing minor chances and a few shots on goal.

Center Sam Reinhart and left winger Evander Kane scored in regulation for the Sabres (21-26-5) while goalie Chad Johnson made 31 saves. “We’ve just got to manage ourselves and stay in (games) – like we did – and find ways to win”. The Bruins overcame a two-goal deficit in the victory.

Eichel’s shot redirected on its way to the net, making it an even trickier puck for Rask to stop. Torey Krug fired a shot from the point, which was initially saved by Chad Johnson, but the puck got caught up in the traffic in front and Ryan Spooner collected it a buried by Johnson for his eleventh goal of the season.

It doesn’t appear there will ever be any daylight between the Bruins and the other teams competing for playoff spots in the Atlantic and Eastern Conference wild-card race. “We battled through it”.

The Bruins had some great early chances to win in overtime, as Evander Kane was called for a slashing penalty just 19 seconds into the extra frame. Johan Larsson drifted into the slot and wristed a hard shot toward the right corner, but Rask waffled the puck out of play. Their initial opportunity by Brian Gionta hit the post, but after some sustained pressure, Kane buried his 12th goal of the season.

Reinhart made it 2-0 47 seconds into the second period on a deflection in front of the Bruins net. Mark Pysyk’s point shot through traffic picked up a screen from Chara and changed directions to beat Rask.

NOTES: Sabres D Mike Weber and D Carlo Colaiacovo were scratched. Marchand doesn’t have the type of profile that earns a player mention in the Hart Trophy race, but considering his scoring prowess and his importance to the Bruins at even strength and on special teams, you can make the argument that he’s Boston’s MVP among players not named Bergeron.