Sabres Win First Playoff Series Since 2007

Alex Tuch (Boston College) and Josh Norris (Michigan) scored the first and last goals of the game, respectively, and the Buffalo Sabres moved on to the second round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 4-1 victory over the Boston Bruins last night. Buffalo wins the best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series, four games to two.

Tage Thompson (UConn) had two assists and Alex Lyon (Yale) stopped 25 shots as the Sabres won their first postseason series since 2007. Prior to this year, the Sabres had not made the playoffs in 14 seasons, which set an NHL record. Buffalo will now face the winner of the Montreal-Tampa Bay series, which will wrap up with a deciding seventh game tomorrow night in Florida.

U.S. Falls to Finland in WJC Gold Medal Game

Sasha Chmelevski and Josh Norris scored goals (Michigan), and Cayden Primeau made 28 saves in all, but the U.S. National Junior Team came up short Saturday night in the 2019 IIHF World
Junior Championship gold medal game in Vancouver. A late third-period goal gave Finland a 3-2 victory and its first WJC gold since 2016.

After Finland took a 2-0 lead early in the third period, Chmelevski and Norris scored to tie the game before the Finns took the lead for good with 1:26 remaining in regulation on Kaapo Kakko's goal off a goalmouth scramble. A first-period goal by USA's Oliver Wahlstrom (Boston College) was disallowed, due to interference with Finnish goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.

It was the first WJC silver medal since 1997 for the U.S., which was seeking its third gold medal in four years. Finland now has five WJC gold medals overall, while the U.S. remains at four. Ryan Poehling (St. Cloud State) of Team USA was named Most Valuable Player of this year's tournament, after finishing third among all scorers with five goals and eight assist for 13 points.