Cody Hodgson scored the equalizer with 26.6 seconds remaining to force overtime, then right winger Drew Stafford ended it in the third round of a shootout to spoil an emotional night honoring the Boston Marathon bombing victims.
BOSTON - With one minute remaining in regulation, the TD Garden sellout crowd of 17,565 rose to its feet in what appeared would be an emotional Boston Bruins victory over the visiting Buffalo Sabres Wednesday night.
Instead, fans left disappointed.
Sabres center Cody Hodgson scored the equalizer with 26.6 seconds remaining to force overtime, then right winger Drew Stafford ended it in the third round of a shootout as the Sabres pulled out a 3-2 win.
The loss was heart-breaking, especially after a moving evening honoring the victims of MondayÂ's Boston Marathon bombings.
"Through it all, our guys really wanted to battle hard and make (the win) happen," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "We had a lot of chances and we thought we'd burry those and we'd like to be better in regards to that. The main goal is to go out there and really play well for the cause and I thought we played a very decent game."
However, the overtime loss clinched a playoff berth for the Bruins, who tied Montreal for first in the Northeast Division as the Habs lost to Pittsburgh, 6-3.
With goalie Ryan Miller (41 saves) pulled, the Sabres had a 6 on 4 advantage in the closing seconds after Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference was penalized for delay of game.
Hodgson's shot took an awkward bounce off Bruins netminder Anton Khudobin (30 saves) and crossed the goal line.
"It’s always tough to lose the games, but we need to learn from that," Khudobin said. "We tried to play for our fans. We tried to play for the people of the city of Boston...We didn’t get the job done, but we’re moving forward. We have to learn from this."
Bruins' killer Thomas Vanek assisted. He scored Buffalo'Âs other goal at 18:20 in the first period.
Nineteen seconds after the Â8-Spoked Salute, which honored first responders of the Boston Marathon bombings, center Chris Kelly scored off a feed from Daniel Paille to give Boston a 2-1 lead at 14:48 of the second period.
It was Kelly's 100th career NHL goal.
Paille opened the scoring at 5:45 in the first period, assisted by Kelly.
It was Paille's third multi-point game this season and Kelly's first.
The two clicked instantly as they skated together on the third line with right winger Nathan Horton in Julien's latest round of different line combinations.
"I thought we went out and played hard. That's what we tried to do and it was a great goal by (Paille) and the start we wanted," Kelly said. "It was nice to score, but it's such a small thing, especially on a night like tonight."