Bruins get back to losing ways, drop 6-3 decision in Buffalo

Now back to our regularly scheduled Boston Bruins offerings A night after the B s stunned the playoff-bound Carolina Hurricanes - the B s blew an early two-goal lead in a a typically brutal second period that they could now trademark and then coughed up two goals early in the third period to fall - to the Sabres in Buffalo on Sunday David Pastrnak notched three more assists to push his point total to for the year and Morgan Geekie pulled to within a tally of the -goal plateau but it wasn t enough as Tage Thompson notched his second hat trick against the B s this season There s surely a large practical-thinking swath of the Bruins fandom who are just fine with the L considering it gives them a better shot at a top-five draft pick There s also a chance that the B s may have discovered a first line for the future It is invariably dangerous to put too much stock in what you see from an eliminated organization in April But it s hard not to be a little intrigued by what the new top line of Pastrnak Geekie and Elias Lindholm has done in the last three games Put together late in Thursday s loss in Montreal they put one on the board late in that encounter scored five in the - win over Carolina on Saturday and on Sunday scored the first two goals in the first period against the Sabres Lindholm opened the scoring with his third goal in as a multitude of games and th on the season Henri Jokiharju dished to Pastrnak in his usual one-timer spot in the left circle Ukko-Pekka Lukkonen came out and geared up for the blast from Pastrnak but instead he dished to Lindholm in front The center caught the pass and scored on a backhander from the top of the crease at It was Lindholm s th career point and if the B s have uncovered a real home where he can be productive that would be a major enhancement for the million centerman Lindholm also sent Geekie and Pastrnak off on a -on- with a good backcheck but they were thwarted on that chance But another great play from Pastrnak gave the B s a - lead at Pastrnak stole a puck just outside the Buffalo zone and made sure not to have his stick on the puck as he pushed it into the zone allowing Lindholm to tag up Pastrnak then attacked dishing the puck to Geekie who beat Lukkonen on a deflected shot his th of the season But that - lead evaporated in a recurrence of the B s second period blues Tage Thompson cut the B s lead in half after the B s coughed up the puck in their own zone Bowen Byram flipped a puck toward the net that Zach Benson deflected It hit Joonas Korpisalo but he could not corral it and the puck squirted to Thompson for an easy goal at The Sabres evened it up at Fabian Lysell s one-hand reach for a loose puck in the left circle was not good enough and the JJ Peterka controlled dishing it to Rasmus Dahlin The defenseman s shot was deflected by Alex Tuch and it eluded Korpisalo The B s regained the lead briefly on the power play at Pastrnak took the puck down low on the right wing and sent a havoc-creating puck into the slot Lukkonen made the initial save but Casey Mittelstadt was there for the put-back It was the former Sabre s first goal and point in seven games It was the th straight Bruin goal in which Pastrnak had a hand But the B s could not get out of the period without giving up another equalizer with left in the period After Tuch took Fraser Minten out high and handed the puck to Dahlin Dahlin then lost Lysell out high and beat Korpisalo with a shortside wrister and it was - going into the third That tie didn t last long At of the third Jason Zucker s shot from high in the left hit Korpisalo up high deflected up in the air and dropped into the net behind him Just a minimal minutes later Korpisalo stopped Zucker on a clean breakaway after Pastrnak broke his stick on a shot from the blue line But Korpisalo had no such luck on a second clean breakaway this one from Thompson The lanky centerman went to his backhand to give the Sabres a - lead at Thompson added an empty netter for the hat trick with seconds left