Houston Dynamo coach Ben Olsen wants a sharper offensive performance when his club hosts the Colorado Rapids on Saturday.

The Dynamo (4-5-0, 12 points) have struggled to capitalize on possessions around the box, a trend that Olsen said must improve.

“We are a little toothless in our attack,” Olsen said. “We have to be a little more patient and balanced and figure out the final third.”

Houston lost 2-0 to Austin last Saturday, even though it held 53.9% of the possession. Prior to the loss at Austin, the Dynamo had won two straight matches by 1-0 scores but have been outscored 18-12 this season.

Guilherme Augusto leads the Dynamo with five goals and four assists.

“For 100 minutes a week, you’ve got to summon something, summon the best in yourself,” Olsen said. “And that’s the responsibility these players have and I have.”

Colorado (4-5-1, 13 points) will look to bounce back after a 3-1 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps last Saturday. Rafael Navarro tallied the lone goal, and the Brazilian forward leads the Rapids with seven goals and four assists. He also has 19 shots on target.

Navarro’s goal last week marked his 50th regular-season goal contribution in his fourth year with the club. He’s the eighth Colorado player to reach the milestone.

Rapids defender Keegan Rosenberry said the Rapids have to get off to better starts.

“From the first whistle, we have to show up as ourselves,” Rosenberry said. “We have to have that bravery and meet the demands of the game better.”

In the first matchup between the two teams, the Rapids rolled to a 6-2 home win over the Dynamo on April 11. Kosi Thompson and Navarro each scored a brace in that match. But since then, the Rapids have gone 0-2-1 in league play.

“We have to do the necessary dirty stuff to win games,” Colorado coach Matt Wells said. “Our football warrants that.”

–Field Level Media

Gage Goncalves scored the overtime game-winning goal to give the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning a 1-0 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Friday and force Game 7 of their Stanley Cup playoff series.

The deciding game of their Eastern Conference first-round set will be Sunday in Tampa. That clash has quite the affair to top in entertainment value.

A thrilling Game 6 finally came to a close when Goncalves buried a loose puck amidst a scramble at 9:02 of overtime for his first career playoff overtime winner.

It came shortly after the Lightning killed a Montreal power play.

Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy had struggled to find his form during this series, but he delivered his best performance with 30 saves to post his eighth career playoff shutout.

Montreal goalie Jakub Dobes stopped 32 shots in a fantastic goaltending duel.

All six games have been decided by one goal. Both teams have won twice in overtime.

The series winner will face the Buffalo Sabres in the second round of the playoffs.

The lack of goals was not indicative of the action. Both clubs generated a litany of scoring chances in a back-and-forth clash.

Tampa came within a whisker of scoring first early in the second period when Corey Perry slipped a shot through Dobes’ legs, but Phillip Danault pulled the puck off the goal line behind his netminder.

Late in the second period, Vasilevskiy robbed Ivan Demidov with a pair of sprawling saves that had the Montreal forward looking skyward during a Canadiens power play. Danault was also stopped on a partial breakaway in the dying seconds of the frame.

Alexandre Texier, who scored the winning goal in Game 5, rang a shot off the post early in the third period moments before Jake Guentzel was stopped on a breakaway at the other end.

During Tampa’s ensuing power play, both Nikita Kucherov and Guentzel struck iron.

Dobes also stood tall during another Lightning third-period power play, capping it with a clutch stop on Brayden Point.

–Field Level Media

The visiting Buffalo Sabres scored two first-period goals and never trailed en route to a 4-1 win over the Boston Bruins on Friday, clinching their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series in Game 6.

Alex Tuch and Mattias Samuelsson built a 2-0 lead in the opening frame before Zach Benson and Josh Norris added insurance tallies in the third as Buffalo advanced to the conference semifinals for the first time since 2007.

Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin each dished out two assists while Alex Lyon made 25 saves for the Sabres, who won all three games played in Boston in the series.

David Pastrnak scored the lone goal and Jeremy Swayman stopped 22 shots in Boston’s losing effort.

Buffalo finished 0-for-4 on the power play, while Boston never had a man advantage.

The Sabres needed just 3:25 to score on their first shot and take a 1-0 lead for the third consecutive game. Tuch was open at the top of the crease to net Dahlin’s centering pass from the left circle past a trailing Swayman.

After the game’s first power play ended, Lyon kept the momentum on Buffalo’s side with huge saves in the middle stages of the first period. Among them, Casey Mittelstadt had a break-in attempt and a follow-up after a Morgan Geekie feed sent him ahead of the defense.

Samuelsson made it 2-0 at 12:26 of the first, sending in a long shot from above the left circle through traffic. The puck sailed past Swayman’s blocker side.

Pastrnak got the second period off to an emphatic start for Boston at 1:54, helping to force a neutral-ice turnover before beating Lyon with a one-time shot off Pavel Zacha’s cross-ice pass on a 2-on-1 rush.

Neither side tallied for the rest of the period, including a stretch of nine-plus uninterrupted minutes. Swayman kept Boston’s deficit at 2-1 by denying close-range shots by Thompson and Bowen Byram during the extended sequence without a whistle.

Lyon made big saves against Geekie and Pastrnak to thwart Boston’s heavy pressure early in the third, helping to set the stage for Benson’s goal at 5:58.

Off a draw in Boston’s offensive zone, Josh Doan beat both Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy to a puck to start the goal-scoring play. While bracing for a hit in the left corner, Doan fired a pass to an open Benson in the slot, where Benson fired home a one-time goal.

Norris punctuated the series victory, hitting the empty net with 3:20 remaining.

–Field Level Media