Or another Lucic error, which would cost him his spot on the first line. The left wing whiffed on the puck in the defensive zone, allowed Tyler Ennis to gain control, and watched helplessly as Jason Pominville rocketed a shot past Rask to give the Sabres a 3-2 second-period lead.
“Two mistakes there today on the first and third goal,’’ said Lucic, who switched spots with fourth-line left wing Daniel Paille in the third period. “First one, I got caught out of position. Second one, I didn’t make a strong play.’’
But you know what? Mistakes happen. All the time, even to the best teams. It’s how a team responds that determines its fate.
“Hockey’s about mistakes,’’ David Krejci said. “There’s always going to be mistakes. If there’s no mistakes, then hockey would be 0-0.’’
Including their 2-1 Game 1 victory, the Sabres were 31-0-0 this season when leading after 40 minutes. But the Bruins, down, 3-2, after two periods yesterday, burned the Buffalo net with three third-period goals to claim a 5-3 Game 2 win before 18,690 at HSBC Arena. The win guarantees a return trip to Buffalo for Game 5 Friday.
“We’ll take it,’’ said Mark Recchi, who capped the victory with an empty-net goal at 19:40. “Now we’ll go home.
“We came up here trying to get it. We got it. Now we have to go take care of business at home. They’ve got a good hockey club. We know that. We have to be a lot better at home if we expect to do anything here.’’
After falling behind by two goals, the Bruins tied the game in the second on goals by Michael Ryder and Zdeno Chara. But following Pominville’s kick-to-the-groin goal with 3:19 remaining in the second, the Bruins faced the challenge of beating Ryan Miller at least once in the third period to spoil Buffalo’s perfect-after-40-minutes record.
No sweat.
“I don’t think anybody was down,’’ coach Claude Julien said. “I think everyone understood the urgency of what this game meant to our hockey club and hopefully going back home with a split. In the third period, I think our guys were determined to give it their best.’’
