At TD Garden in Boston on Saturday afternoon, Craig Smith scored a game winning goal with a little less than four minutes left to lift the Boston Bruins to a 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres.
Boston (17-8-5) rallied from a pair of one goal deficits to send Buffalo (6-23-4) to their 17th consecutive loss. Matt Grzeclyk had the first equalizing goal in the second period, while Nick Ritchie scored at 5:22 of the third to even it again after the Sabres had regained the lead. Dan Vladar stopped 25 shots to earn the win in net. Linus Ullmark had 33 saves in the Buffalo loss, and the Sabres got goals from Sam Reinhart and Kyle Okposo. The Bruins will host the New Jersey Devils on Sunday evening.
At Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City Saturday night, the Boston Celtics outscored the Oklahoma City Thunder 35-14 in the fourth quarter to win their second consecutive game 111-94 to get back to the .500 mark on the season.
OKC (19-26) got off to a 14-2 lead and led the entire first half and 52-47 at halftime. Boston (23-23) didn’t take their first lead until Luke Kornet hit a three-pointer with 10:12 left in the game at 85-82. The visitors never trailed again and would build that advantage to as many as 18 in the final quarter.
Jayson Tatum led Boston in the win with a game high 27 points, five rebounds, and three assists. Jaylen Brown had 25 points, while Payton Pritchard added 12 points and seven rebounds, and Carsen Edwards also chipped in 12 points as well. Theo Meledon led the Thunder with 22 points and eight rebounds. The Celtics will host the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday night.
