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BUFFALO, N.Y. – It snowed on Sunday in Buffalo.
What better sign of a little bit of playoff hockey magic could there be than that? Even when the odds turned against them, could these magical, marvelous, mystical Sabres lose on a snowy April 19 in Western New York?
Well, it sure seemed for a while like they could. But that's how this team has felt all season. And while this may have been a more dramatic version of their norm, it's a routine they knew well.
From 2-0 down in the third period to four consecutive goals -- a 4-3 win over the Boston Bruins, an all-time great victory in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference's opening round.
"You could feel the building shaking," Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said after the game. "The atmosphere was unbelievable. It was great to give our fans that third period."
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If you had written this script, it wouldn't have gotten approved. It was too crazy.
After all, these Sabres weren't supposed to be here. Not after sitting last place in the Eastern Conference a couple weeks into December. Not after 14 consecutive seasons of missing the playoffs entirely.
But somehow, some way, they had put together one of the most absurd second-half stretches in NHL history.
And so here they were in primetime, in the midst of something Buffalo hadn't experienced in any form in 5,472 days.
A game like this? Nothing like it ever.
"This team doesn't quit," Ruff said. "They just don't give up."
The Bruins went up 1-0 early, Morgan Geekie taking the rebound of a blocked shot and slotting it home.
It wouldn't grow to 2-0 until the third period, this time Elias Lindholm off a rebound. It could've been worse, but Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped a pair of David Pastrnak breakaways to keep it close.
All the while, the Sabres' powerplay failed to cash in, having not scored with a man-up in all of April.
That's when Tage Thompson, the gold medalist and leading scorer, played hero. Twice, he came through from below the goal after impressive forechecks by his teammates.
The first time, Thompson ended up with a little backhand wraparound. The next, a forehand shot low past Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman, who had been his Team USA teammate and had played two-and-a-half brilliant periods Sunday night before things snowballed.
All of a sudden, in almost no time at all, 2-2.
"We've been in situations all season that have prepared us for games like this," Thompson said. "It's another level, and intensity ramps up, but we've been in situations where we've been behind in games and found our way out of it. So when we're in similar situations, we know we can do it again."
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At that point, it felt a bit like destiny. The Sabres, on a night they doubled the Bruins in shots, couldn't lose now, could they?
"After we tied it there, you could feel the energy within the group, the belief within the group," defenseman Mattias Samuelsson said.
When Jack Quinn won a battle near the boards with three-and-a-half minutes left, and Samuelsson saw space to float into near the center of the ice, it sure was fate.
Samuelsson had been a massively impactful player on this night with multiple shot blocks and nine hits. He had earned the right to finish.
"Samuelsson was an absolute stud in the game," Ruff said.
And finish he did. A louder roar may never have been heard in Western New York. It's a wonder the roof of the KeyBank Center didn't fly off.
"The crowd was great all night," Samuelsson said. "(Thompson) got us going, and the place just erupted. You could feel the energy building. As a group, we felt once we cracked them, we felt we could go from there."
Alex Tuch added an empty-netter for good measure, starting celebrations that were sure to last all night in Buffalo. A late tally by the Bruins wouldn't dampen any spirits. This, against so many odds, was the Sabres' night.
"These are the kind of games you live for," Thompson said. "You want to be in these games. It's been a long time coming."
By the time Thompson and Samuelsson took part in their postgame press conference, it was clear they had already shifted their focus to the fact that they have more games to win. Just because this Sabres team hadn't been here in a long time didn't mean they're just happy to be here. They want it all.
The wily coach, though? Ruff knew how special this night had been.
He was asked if it was better than his first-ever playoff win.
"This one right here," Ruff said. "Right here, right now... This was probably the sweetest of all of them."
Ruff had also been asked how he summed it up to the players. And, well, the guy with nearly 1,000 career coaching wins rattled off a summation better than any we could come up with.
"I told them after the game, 'You want experience? You've got it now,'" Ruff said. "I mean, what an experience. You're gonna say this was my first playoff game? You've got a great story to tell."
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