“That goal by (Morgan) Geekie from center ice was a killer and maybe one that (Sabres coach) Lindy Ruff on the bench looked around and saw what it did to the team and he’s like, ‘OK, I need to give them some confidence and some calm moving forward into Boston,'” Biron said in the interview with co-hosts Dan Rosen and Shawn P. Roarke. “And Alex Lyon provided that calm and really the stops and the saves that they needed in the last three games.”
Biron is talking about the center backhand flip from Geekie that got past Luukkonen at 16:29 of the second period of Game 2 at KeyBank Center on April 21, which gave the Bruins a 2-0 lead they eventually extended to 4-0 before finishing off a 4-2 win to tie the series 1-1.
He said he probably would have gone back to Luukkonen for Game 3, but the Sabres replaced him in the third period of that game and have not looked back.
Biron referenced Luukkonen’s body language after Geekie’s goal as a turning point.
“One of the big things for me when I talk to young goalies or even college-aged goaltenders, I will say, ‘Making saves is one thing, keeping the puck out of your net is one thing, but giving your team confidence and not giving the other team some daylight to believe they got you is also part of that,'” Biron said. “I think that Luukkonen, when he gave up that goal, he stood there like, ‘Oh, man,’ with his shoulders down.
