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Bruins try to stay hot vs. sliding Sabres

Jan 31, 2013 - 4:00 PM (Sports Network) - The Boston Bruins take aim at a fourth straight victory on Thursday night as they play host to the Buffalo Sabres, themselves the losers of four in a row.

The Bruins have opened the season with a point in all six games so far, going 5-0-1 while winning all four of their games at home. Their only setback was a 4-3 overtime decision at the New York Rangers on Jan. 23.

They have scored 10 times in three wins since, not including the winning shootout tally in Tuesday's 2-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils.

Nathan Horton netted the game-tying goal with just over four minutes left in regulation and Brad Marchand had the winning tally in the sixth round of the shootout. Tuukka Rask ended with 25 saves and stopped five straight skaters in the breakaway session after yielding a goal in the first round.

"We did a good job," Marchand remarked. "We were resilient and we showed we can win in all situations, whether we're up or down or tied, it doesn't matter."

Boston has opened a season with points in six straight for the first time since going 5-0 with a tie in 1970-71. It opened the previous season 6-0 with a tie.

The Bruins did have their season-opening penalty kill streak halted on Tuesday. They killed off their first 23 penalties of the season and added another to that total before the Devils struck for a power-play tally in the second.

Boston went 4-1-1 in six meetings with Buffalo last season, winning all three games at home.

The Sabres hope to snap that road skid and win for the first time since beginning this season with consecutive victories. They yielded 12 goals over three straight regulation setbacks prior to Tuesday's 4-3 overtime setback to visiting Toronto.

The game appeared headed to a shootout before the Maple Leafs' Matt Frattin cruised toward the net in the closing moments of overtime and slipped a shot past Ryan Miller with 1.5 ticks on the clock.

Miller allowed all four goals on 20 shots faced.

Mikhail Grigorenko, the 12th overall pick of the most recent draft, netted his first NHL goal, a game-tying tally 7:10 into the third period. Jason Pominville and Andrej Sekera also scored in defeat.

"I thought we dominated the possession game for most of the night," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "We had a lot of great looks and I thought we really skated well."

Ruff's club played most of the game without forward Patrick Kaleta, who suffered a neck injury in the first period after taking a hit from behind. He had x-rays and was taken to the hospital for precautionary reasons.

The Sabres said Kaleta was released from the hospital early on Wednesday but was not expected to travel with the team to Boston.