JONAH BRONSTEIN
Associated Press
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The Boston Bruins bounced back from their worst defensive performance of the season with their first shutout victory.
Niklas Svedberg made 32 saves in his first NHL shutout, and the Bruins beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-0 on Saturday night.
“It’s a great feeling,” Svedberg said. “Most of all to get the win for us was huge. I was happy to get a shutout, too.”
Boston (3-4) gave up a season-high six goals in Thursday night’s loss at Montreal. Svedberg replaced Tuukka Rask in the third period of the loss, before making his third career start in Buffalo.
“We had always taken a lot of pride in our defensive game, and giving up six goals is something that is not acceptable with this team,” defenseman Zdeno Chara said. “We wanted to have a really strong game defensively tonight, and I think we did.”
Chara, Dougie Hamilton, Torey Krug and Carl Soderberg scored for the Bruins, who won twice on a three-game road trip.
“When you come off a road trip, you want to come off with a winning record,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “If we do that every road trip, we are going to be OK.”
All four Boston goals came at even strength, and three were scored against Buffalo’s top line.
“We always build our offense from our strong defense,” Chara said. “So that was obviously the key.”
The Sabres (1-5) were shut out in consecutive games for the first time since October 2003. Buffalo went 0 for 7 on the power play, falling to 0 for 18 on the season.
“The one thing about scoring, it’s like the weather,” Sabres coach Ted Nolan said. “Sometimes it’s there and sometimes it’s not. It’s bad. Right now, it’s bad.”
Jhonas Enroth made 32 saves.
The Bruins were down to five defenseman when Kevin Millar sustained an upper body injury while fighting Nicolas Deslauriers eight minutes into the game.
The Bruins’ first three goals were scored by defensemen.
“Great job by the forwards,” Chara said. “When you have good traffic and guys are driving to the net and staying in front of the net, it makes it hard on the goalies to see the puck, and creates a lot of good things offensively.”
Hamilton rifled in a wrist shot from the right point to give Boston a 1-0 lead midway through the first period. Patrice Bergeron set it up with a pass from the corner.
Chara’s slap shot from the right point made it 2-0 with 6:29 left in the period. Brad Marchand and Hamilton assisted on the goal.
Svedberg made 16 saves in the first period.
“It’s always nice to get some shots in the beginning of the game,” Svedberg said.
Krug scored on a long wrist shot off of David Krejci’s faceoff win to put the Bruins up 3-0 midway through the second period.
Soderberg made it 4-0 when he took Chris Kelly’s pass from behind the net and roofed a backhanded shot from point-blank range with 5:12left in the second.
NOTES: Boston F Milan Lucic apologized to the Bruins, the Montreal Canadiens, and their fans for making an obscene gesture Thursday night in Montreal. … Bruins LW Simon Gagne made his first start of the season. The former Philadelphia Flyers forward was signed earlier this week after being out of the NHL last season. … Sabres C Sam Reinhart, the No. 2 pick in this year’s draft, was a healthy scratch for the first time.
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