Marat Khusnutdinov scores in OT as Bruins beat Sabres, 4-3

Steve Conroy, Boston Herald on Oct 30, 2025

Published in Hockey

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BOSTON — The Bruins may not be a great hockey team. We still don’t know if they’re even very good at all. But they can be a fun, if unconventional, watch right now.

The B’s, outshot 40-23 and held in the game by Joonas Korpisalo, coughed up a two-goal, third-period lead but pulled it out in overtime, beating the Buffalo Sabres, 4-3, on Marat Khusnutdinov’s OT goal, his first tally of the season.

After Josh Doan cut into a 3-1 Bruins lead with a goal earlier in the period, the Sabres tied it with a controversial goal with 5:35 left in the third. Off a faceoff, Alex Tuch beat Korpisalo with a wrist shot from the slot. The B’s challenged for goalie interference after Doan had pushed Henri Jokiharju into Korpisalo, but it was ruled there was enough to take the goal off the board.

The failed challenge put the Sabres on the power play, but the B’s were able to kill it off. But when the teams went to three aside, the B’s broke out on a 3-on-1 thanks to a great defensive play by Fraser Minten and Khusnutdinov kept it for himself, whistling a wrist shot past Alex Lyon from the right circle at 2:07 of OT.

With 1:17 left in regulation, Jordan Greenway tripped Viktor Arvidsson, but the B’s could not cash in.

After his stellar 33-save performance against the Islanders, Korpisalo got the start again, the first time he’s gotten back-to-back starts since coming to Boston last season.

And it’s a good thing he was on his game early. The Bruins continued their trend of making every team look like 1977 Montreal Canadiens in the first 10 minutes of the game. Korpisalo came up with several good saves, and none better than the one Doan had. He found himself all alone in the slot with the puck courtesy of a fortuitous bounce but could not beat the B’s netminder.

The Sabres didn’t do themselves any favors, either. At one point, they had a 4-on-1 but did not get a shot on net.

The B’s, meanwhile, did not have a shot on net through the first 9:42, but they managed to come out of the opening frame with a 2-0 lead.

They got the first two power plays of the game and, after not getting a shot on net on the first one, the white hot Morgan Geekie got the B’s on the board. After Pavel Zacha muscled the puck over to him on the left wing, David Pastrnak hit Geekie with a great cross-slot pass, and Geekie roofed a wrister over Lyon at 13:07. He stretched his goal streak to six games with his ninth of the year.

Two minutes later, Pastrnak doubled the lead. Ryan McLeod looked like he had some time and space to make a play high in the Bruins’ zone, but Pastrnak got his stick on his shot and headed the other way on a 2-on-1 with Elias Lindholm. From his off wing, Pastrnak slipped his seventh of the year between Lyon’s pads.

After the B’s killed off a late penalty, the Sabres went into the break with a 13-5 shot advantage but nothing tangible to show for it.

Despite chances for both sides in the second, the score remained 2-0 when, at 7:20, Lindholm ran into Greenway in the center ice circle. After it appeared his left knee buckled, the centerman went down in a heap in obvious pain and would need some assistance getting off the ice and down the tunnel. He did not return.

After some line juggling, the B’s had a chance to put the hammer down when they got another power play, but they coughed it up late when Zacha took a hooking penalty.

On the advantage, the Sabres finally beat Korpisalo at 16:01 when Rasmus Dahlin point shot got through a screen to the back of the net.

But for the second time in four games, the B’s scored in the final seconds of the second period to give themselves a two-goal lead going into the third. Sean Kuraly took a shot from the right wing that Lyon stopped but could not control. Tanner Jeannot took another whack at the rebound and got it through Lyon. With the puck sitting in the crease, Lyon could not locate it before Mark Kastelic jammed it home with 20.6 seconds left.

Tempers flared after that, with Nikita Zadorov and Jeannot jawing with Greenway. It took a few minutes for the officials regain order, as Zadorov and Bowen Byram yapped at each other on the benches.

As the seconds were ticking off, Zacha took an ill-advised crosschecking penalty on Josh Dunne, giving the Sabres a full two-minute power play to start the third.

The B’s were able to kill that one off, but the Sabres controlled much of the play until they inched back to within a goal at 7:00 of the third. Korpisalo stopped a Tuch shot from the right wing, but the rebound popped high in the air and into the slot. Doan gloved it down and was able to tuck it around Korpisalo’s pad to make it 3-2.