BUFFALO– As the Bruins finished their five-game road trip Friday night in Buffalo, they could have been walking into a much better situation had they held on to two third period leads in their previous two contests.

In Monday’s loss to the New York Rangers and Wednesday’s third period collapse in Philadelphia against the Flyers, the Bruins left too many important points on the table.

Entering the third period in Buffalo, the Bruins needed their best 20 minutes of the night in order to cap the road trip off on a positive note. Just 29 seconds into the final frame, Zdeno Chara’s point shot had eyes and found the back of the net to give the Bruins their first lead of the night and third straight game with a third period lead.

Just over ten minutes later, Ryan Spooner did his part in ensuring their would be no third period blunder as he tallied his 10th goal of the season. The Bruins would go on to win 4-1 after Brett Connolly’s empty-net goal.

After frustration in the previous two third periods, the Bruins were happy to put forth a solid third period effort and walk away with two much needed points.

“Yeah, I can’t tell ya, I think two of our last six games we’ve been up in the third period and we’ve kind of blew them,” Ryan Spooner said. “You know it was huge for us, yeah it was good.”

Spooner continues to step up in Krejci’s absence

The Bruins offense has surely missed David Krejci. With just four goals in their last three contests heading into Buffalo, the Bruins needed to spread the scoring around and get production from top to bottom. Production is exactly what Spooner has done since the team lost Krejci to an upper body injury.

“Yeah, he’s been good. I thought a couple of times there he got rid of the puck early when he was feeling some danger coming around him,” said head coach Claude Julien after the win. “But’s he’s been a real good asset for us, a real good replacement for David Krejci since he’s been down. He’s been skating really well, making things happen—back-checking.”

In the eight games that Krejci has missed, Spooner has two goals and nine assists. Spooner is now fourth on the team in points with 30, eight back of team leader Patrice Bergeron.

Bruins penalty kill comes up huge in second period

Shortly after Matt Beleskey tied the game up at one, the Bruins found themselves in danger after three straight penalties gave the Sabres three consecutive power plays and a chance to quickly regain the lead. But backup goaltender Jonas Gustavsson and the Bruins penalty killers stood strong, killing off the three minor penalties.

“Yeah, we took three in a row there early on, hardly any five-on-five there between those three penalties,” added Julien. “It really kind of put us on our heels there a little bit, but once we were done killing it there’s no doubt it gives your team a boost there, but at the same time we got our game going again five-on-five and entering the third there we had to make sure we stayed out of the box there.”

Max Talbot gets physical with Johan Larsson

Nearly 30 seconds after David Legwand opened the scoring for Buffalo with his third goal of the season after Colin Miller’s turnover behind the Bruins’ net in the first period of Friday’s contest with the Sabres, forward Max Talbot wanted to make sure the goal didn’t sway too much momentum in Buffalo’s favor.

Doing whatever he can to help the team, Talbot dropped the gloves with Sabres’ forward Johan Larsson. The veteran forward met the 5’ 10”, 200 pound forward at center ice where the two exchanged blows with a few heavy punches connecting from both Talbot and Larsson. The fight was Talbot’s first of the season and first fight since December 5, 2014, when he went up against Colorado Avalanche forward Jim Slater.