Tuch, Mattias Samuelsson, Zach Benson and Josh Norris scored for the Sabres, who are the No. 1 seed in the Atlantic Division. Dahlin and Tage Thompson each had two assists, and Alex Lyon made 25 saves.
Lyon went 3-1-0 in the series with a 1.14 goals-against average and .955 save percentage in five games. He started the final four games after relieving Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen early in the third period of Game 2.
“You can’t get much better than that,” Tuch said of Lyon’s performance in this series. “He was lights out. The only way they beat him tonight was just a great 2-on-1 backdoor by (David) Pastrnak, who is a really good player. (Lyon) was lights out. He was just in the zone and attacked every opportunity they threw at him. He was Steady Eddie. He was awesome. It gives the bench a lot of confidence when you have a guy like that, playing the way he was.”
The Sabres will face either the Montreal Canadiens or the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round. Tampa Bay extended that series with a 1-0 overtime victory in Montreal on Friday. The teams will play the deciding Game 7 in Tampa on Sunday (6 p.m. ET; The Spot, HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).
“It was unreal,” said Dahlin, the Sabres captain, who is in his eighth season with Buffalo. “I like how we attacked this series as a team. A lot of unexperienced guys, and just playing the way we did all series is pretty cool. We have good things ahead. We can learn a lot from this, but I love what we did in this series. It was special.”
Buffalo, making its first postseason appearance since 2011, hadn’t won a playoff series since it eliminated the New York Rangers in Game 6 of the 2007 Eastern Conference Semifinals when current Sabres coach Lindy Ruff was in his first stint coaching the team.
“It’s a group that hasn’t been here,” Ruff said. “I told them, ‘We’re going to win the game.’ I said, ‘We’re going to win the series. We’ve got to do some things better, but we’re going to win the game.’
“The only way you get experience is by winning. I’ve had disappointing games against Boston going way back, so to come in here and win this series in this building, it’s not an easy town to come in and play and win hockey games. We’ve got to give our guys a lot of credit.”
David Pastrnak scored, and Jeremy Swayman made 22 saves for the Bruins, who were the first wild card from the East.
“We never really got into the flow and Buffalo played solid,” Boston coach Marco Sturm said. “They played like we played (Game 5) in Buffalo. It’s sometimes how it goes, but it’s not for lack of effort. It’s not for lack of attitude. These guys care, I can tell you that. We’re here for a reason. We played a hell of a season because of the character we have in that room, and unfortunately, we came up short.”
After finishing tied with the Carolina Hurricanes for the most home wins in the regular season (29), the Bruins lost all three games at TD Garden in this series.
“It’s not acceptable,” Boston defenseman Charlie McAvoy said. “I don’t know exactly what it is. We can talk a big game in here about how excited we are, but for whatever reason we were awesome at home this year and we didn’t do it when it mattered the most. I don’t know if it’s a maturity thing. We just weren’t ready to go with details. I’m not exactly sure, but they got the jump on us all three times (at TD Garden)."
Tuch gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead at 3:25 of the first period. He scored on a tap-in near the right post off of Dahlin’s pass from the bottom of the left face-off circle.
“I joined the rush, and (Thompson) made a good play,” Dahlin said. “It was in my feet, but I knew I had someone back door, so I looked up and it was (Tuch) in the right spot at the right time, so it was just easy to give it to him.”
Samuelsson increased the lead to 2-0 at 12:26, scoring from above the left circle with a wrist shot that went inside the near post with Swayman heavily screened.
Pastrnak cut the deficit to 2-1 at 1:54 of the second period. He created a turnover in the neutral zone with a hit on Ryan McLeod, then finished a 2-on-1 with a one-timer from the left circle after a pass from Pavel Zacha.
Benson made it 3-1 at 5:58 of the third period. Josh Doan outraced two Bruins for the puck in the left corner and sent a centering pass to Benson, who was all alone between the circles and scored to the glove side.
“I love how that line plays,” Dahlin said. “You could see it throughout the whole series. They hunt pucks in the greasy areas, and they get under the other team’s skin. They’ve been an unbelievable line for us, and today they scored a couple of goals, so it’s always good. They’re a great line.”
Norris added an empty-net goal at 16:40 for the 4-1 final.
“It’s one step in the right direction -- that’s it,” Tuch said. “Every team sets out in training camp to try to be the best at the end of the year and try to hoist the Stanley Cup. That’s the goal for our team as well. We’re one round into the playoffs and in our eyes, we haven’t done anything yet.
“We’re going to enjoy this series win, we’re going to move on and be ready for whoever we play next. We’re hoping it’s a long road ahead of us. It’s going to be a grind each and every day, so we’re going to be ready.”
NOTES: Lyon gave up five goals in five appearances in the series, the fewest goals allowed in any five-game span in the playoffs by a Buffalo goalie. ... This is the second time the Sabres have won their first three road playoff games. They also did it in 1983 at Montreal (two games) and Boston (one game). ... Samuelsson became the second defenseman in Sabres history to score a series-clinching goal, joining Alexei Zhitnik (Game 4 of the 1999 conference quarterfinals). … Ruff has been a part of 15 of Buffalo's 22 series-clinching wins (11 as a head coach and four as a player).
Advance for 1st time since 2006-07 after eliminating Bruins in Game 6 of Eastern 1st Round
BOSTON -- The days had dragged on, the minutes, the hours, the disappointment simmering, the anticipation building. The Buffalo Sabres had held within their grasp a chance to clinch the first Stanley Cup Playoffs series win in 19 years on home ice in Game 5, had taken the Boston Bruins to overtime, and had lost.
There were two full days until they got a chance to try again, two days in which they had to answer questions, ruminate on what could have been, travel to Boston, and refocus themselves on getting the final win to move on to the Eastern Conference Second Round. As Mattias Samuelsson put it earlier in the day, “The two days feels like a week.”
They could have let the pressure mount, the sticks grow tight in their grips.
They didn’t.
They came into TD Garden, took a one-goal lead, then a two-goal lead, muting the crowd, putting the Bruins on their heels. They didn’t let up, even when the Bruins narrowed the lead, even when the crowd surged back to life, earning a 4-1 win in Game 6.
And, in doing so, these Sabres did what so many who came before hadn’t: They won a series. They moved on.
So what did this mean? What did it mean to not just make the playoffs, but to win a series? To not just gain entrance to the select group of postseason teams, but to prove that they belonged?
“It means a lot,” forward Tage Thompson said. “When you get a taste of winning, you just get hungrier and hungrier. This is another steppingstone, another great achievement, but there’s still more ahead.
“Obviously we’re going to enjoy what we accomplished tonight, but there’s still more to be done. That’s exciting. It’s been a long time, especially for me and (Rasmus Dahlin) being here. You get to this spot and you don’t know how many of these opportunities you’re going to get in your career. Take advantage of it and make the most of it.”
That, in so many ways, was the key message on Friday, the takeaway from winning a game and a series, erasing yet another drought from the record books. The Sabres were not just happy to be there, not just happy for the participation trophy of finally, finally making the playoffs. They were out for more than a postseason cameo.
“It’s one step in the right direction,” Alex Tuch said. “That’s it. Every team sets out in training camp to try to be the best at the end of the year, try to hoist the Stanley Cup, so obviously that’s a goal for our team as well.
“We’re one round in the playoffs -- in our eyes we haven’t done anything yet. We’re going to enjoy this win, this series win, we’re going to move on and be ready for whoever we play next. Because we’re hoping it’s a long road ahead for us.”
The Sabres jumped on the Bruins early in Game 6, trying to leave no doubt about their intentions, trying to keep any nerves at bay. They scored just 3:25 into the first period, a cross-ice pass from Dahlin finding Tuch left alone by the crease.
They doubled their lead on a shot by Mattias Samuelsson -- he of the game-winner in Game 1 -- at 12:26 of the first period from the top of the left circle.
It took the wind out of the building.
And though David Pastrnak cut their lead in half at 1:54 of the second period, forcing a turnover and finishing it off with a goal from just above the left face-off dot, and though the Bruins pushed through much of the third period, the Sabres ultimately were the better team, the more talented team, the team that was moving on.
“It’s a group that hasn’t been here,” coach Lindy Ruff said. “I told them we were going to win the game. I said, ‘We are going to win the series. We’re going to win the game. We’ve got to do some things better, but we’re going to win the game.’”
There are kids in college, kids who are no longer kids, who had never seen their Sabres win a single playoff series. Kids whose whole concept of the Sabres was as a wish, a hope, with no fulfillment, no payoff.
They got that on Friday.
Their Sabres were headed to the second round, set to face either the Montreal Canadiens or the Tampa Bay Lightning. The last time that had happened, the Sabres winning a series, was May 6, 2007, six days before Sabres forward Zach Benson would turn 2 years old.
Nineteen years later, Benson would score the goal to seal the win, putting the Sabres up 3-1 after Josh Doan tracked down a puck in the corner ahead of Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy, throwing it back to Benson left alone in the slot.
After that, there was little question.
It was the Sabres night, the Sabres series, a win 19 years in the making.
“Unbelievable,” Tuch said. “Yeah, really special. Feels like it's been a long time coming. I know ‘Dahls’ has been here a little bit longer than me, but for me it's been five long years and waiting for something special to happen, and we're hoping it's just a start.”
