Following a Tuesday road victory, the Boston Bruins have snatched the home-ice advantage away from the Buffalo Sabres in their Eastern Conference first-round series.

That means the intense playoff feeling is alive and well as the scene shifts to Boston on Thursday night for Game 3 of the best-of-seven series.

“I feel like it was nasty from the first shift, from the first game,” Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov said after Tuesday’s physical battle which featured 94 penalty minutes, including 72 in the third period alone.

“It’s playoff emotions and intensity. It’s always going to be up there.”

First-year Bruins coach Marco Sturm was not completely dissatisfied with his team’s Game 1 performance, outside of Buffalo’s third-period rally to snag a 4-3 win.

But on Tuesday, the Bruins were 4-2 winners, responding to the loss with a rock-solid effort in front of goaltender Jeremy Swayman, who boasts a .932 save percentage through two games in the series.

Viktor Arvidsson netted two goals, including the opener of Boston’s three-goal second period that built a lead it would never relinquish. Morgan Geekie and Arvidsson’s linemate Pavel Zacha also scored.

“We did a lot of good things. We played our style of hockey, I would say definitely more than Game 1,” Sturm said. “Overall, it was a good game, but at the end of the day, it was only one game. … We’re gonna regroup, fly home and try to do the same thing at home.”

For the second-line trio of former Sabre Casey Mittelstadt, Zacha and Arvidsson, the strong effort followed a challenge from Sturm to get back to their hard-nosed style of play, matching that of the team. They delivered.

“They just needed a poke, that’s all,” Sturm said. “Knowing ‘Arvy’ very well, he’s a guy who takes it very seriously and takes it to heart. I knew he was going to have a big night.”

The Bruins will be looking for a repeat type of effort as the series resumes. Meanwhile, the Sabres have questions to answer if they want to get back into it.

The biggest is the team’s goaltending situation, as Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was pulled in favor of Alex Lyon after allowing four goals on 20 shots.

“Just felt that there may be a chance we’re going to need (Lyon),” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said of the pull. “May play him next game, but just get him a period because he hasn’t played in a while.”

Lyon had not seen game action since April 4.

The second goal against Luukkonen was Geekie’s backhand lob from beyond center ice. If the momentum had not been on Boston’s side yet, that one turned it all the way.

“In those situations, if there’s a bad bounce, bad goal, you kind of have to stop the bleeding,” Luukkonen said. “Wasn’t able to do that (Tuesday).”

Buffalo did make things interesting in the waning minutes of regulation. Back-to-back goals by defenseman Bowen Byram and Peyton Krebs cut the deficit to 4-2 with 4:52 left.

A major reason for the struggles was another scoreless power-play night. Despite an overall shot advantage for the second straight game in the series at 35-27, the man-up unit was 0-for-5 on Tuesday and dropped to 0-for-31 over the last nine games.

“I think we’ll have to tweak some things,” Ruff said. “I think if you look at the last power play, we went with a little bit of a different look. … We had a scheme that we thought maybe would work a little bit better. I like the amount of shots we generated.”

–Field Level Media

Janson Junk allowed just one hit and a walk over five innings, and Jakob Marsee drove in a pair as the Miami Marlins beat the visiting St. Louis Cardinals 4-1 on Wednesday to claim the deciding contest of their three-game series.

Junk (1-2) pitched efficiently, needing just 56 pitches to go five. He struck out two and only gave up a single to Pedro Pages in the third and a fifth-inning bases on balls to Nathan Church as the right-hander posted his first victory since Aug. 6, 2025.

Javier Sanoja had his third three-hit game of the season, getting three singles in four at-bats to lead a 12-hit attack, all singles, for the Marlins. Augustin Ramirez went 2-for-3 with a walk, a run scored and an RBI, and Heriberto Ramirez enjoyed a 2-for-4 day with a run scored.

Miami jumped ahead thanks to a two-run second inning. Liam Hicks started the frame with a leadoff single off Kyle Leahy (2-3), and Ramirez followed with another hit. After Hernandez forced Hicks at third, Owen Caissie singled home Ramirez.

Leo Jimenez took first, getting hit by a pitch to load the bases. Sanoja popped out, but Marsee added to the Marlins’ lead by drawing a walk.

Marsee made it 3-0 in the fourth when his one-out single brought home Jimenez. In the next inning, Ramirez’s second hit of the game scored Otto Lopez.

Leahy gave up eight hits and walked three over five innings. All four runs he allowed were earned as the right-hander struck out a pair.

It stayed 4-0 until the top of the ninth. Ivan Herrera welcomed Lake Bachar with a home run, his third of the season, and Nolan Gorman walked. Bachar did get Ramon Urias to pop out before right-hander Pete Fairbanks came in to get Jose Fermin on a warning-track flyout to left fielder Hernandez and struck out Church swinging to earn his fifth save.

Andrew Nardi, Anthony Bender and Michael Petersen combined for three scoreless innings in relief for the Marlins. They gave up just two hits and struck out six.

–Field Level Media

The Athletics placed outfielder Denzel Clarke on the 10-day injured list on Wednesday due to a bone bruise in his right foot.

In a corresponding move, the Athletics recalled outfielder Colby Thomas from Triple-A Las Vegas.

Clarke, 25, last played on Monday as a defensive placement in center field in the eighth inning of a 6-4 road victory over the Seattle Mariners.

A native of Canada, Clarke is batting .170 (9-for-53) with six RBIs and two stolen bases in 22 games. He has struck out 24 times and walked four times.

Last season as a rookie, Clarke hit .230 with a .274 on-base percentage, three home runs, eight RBIs, eight doubles, two triples, six steals, six walks and 61 strikeouts in 47 games.

The Athletics selected Clarke in the fourth round of the 2021 MLB Draft.

Thomas, 25, made his major league debut in 2025 and hit .225 (27-for-120) with six homers and 19 RBIs in 49 games. He hit .309 with five homers and 19 RBIs in 17 games for Las Vegas this season.

–Field Level Media