Powered by 32 saves from Tuukka Rask, the Deadline Bruins remained perfect Tuesday night with their fifth-straight victory, this time by a 2-0 final over the Sabres at Buffalo’s KeyBank Center.
The shutout was the 34-year-old Rask’s first of the 2021 season, and with a first-period save on the Sabres’ Dylan Cozens standing as the most ridiculous of the night and perhaps Rask’s entire campaign.
“It’s half-skill, half-luck,” Rask said of the save. “Just desperation. You throw yourself to that side and hope it hits you.”
“We got some huge saves from Tuukka tonight, obviously,” said Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy. “Second-effort saves, tracked the puck well. He was our best player. We could’ve been a lot better in front of him and made his life easier.”
Tuukka Rask robs Dylan Cozens. pic.twitter.com/efYgaBGTUB
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) April 20, 2021
The shutout was the 51st of Rask’s career, too, moving him into a five-way tie for the 27th-most in NHL history.
Boston jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 8:06 mark of the period on Brad Marchand’s team-leading 24th goal of the season. The goal was straight-up easy work for the Black and Gold first line, too, as they simply danced around Buffalo’s zone before Marchand had a wide-open cage in front of him for his third goal in the last two games.
With the goal, Marchand moved into sole possession of fourth place on the 2021 point leaderboard, with 55, trailing only the Oilers’ one-two of Connor McDavid (74) and Leon Draisaitl (63) and Chicago’s Patrick Kane (57).
Up by one through 20 minutes of action, the B’s doubled their advantage just 3:03 into the second period by way of a Connor Clifton squeaker through Dustin Tokarski and then kicked into the Buffalo cage by Tokarski’s right skate.
Ty Anderson is a writer and columnist for 985TheSportsHub.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Yell at him on Twitter: @_TyAnderson.
