Sabres’ Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen gets brutally honest on awful miscue in Game 2

The 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs have not been kind to Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. The Finn has allowed seven goals in the first two games of the team’s first-round series against the Boston Bruins, and sports a 4.19 goals-against average and .821 save percentage.

He watched four get by him in a 4-2, Game 2 loss to the Bruins on Tuesday night, and one of them will live in infamy. He misplayed a Morgan Geekie backhand from center ice, which hopped over his glove and went into the net to give Boston a two-goal lead in the second period.

“Just a bad bounce and a goal, of course, the second one there. Of course, that’s my fault,” Luukkonen told reporters afterwards, per NHL.com’s Heather Engel. “There’s no way around it; you’ve just got to do better with those. But I feel like the biggest thing for me, personally, is that in those situations, if there’s a bad bounce, bad goal, you have to stop the bleeding. But I wasn’t able to do that tonight.”

MORGAN GEEKIE JUST SCORED A GOAL FROM CENTER ICE

WHAT IS GOING ON pic.twitter.com/dTEylZ4aP7

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 22, 2026

Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff shared a slightly different perspective.

“That’s a lucky goal,” he said. “Over the years, you see goals like that took a little bit of a hard right when it landed, ends up going in. This team has been so good about how we win together, we lose together. I’m not going to sit here and criticize that goal.”

It’s nice to see Ruff defend his goalie, but the goal not only took the crowd out of the contest, but also seemed to deflate the team as well. It’ll be interesting to see if the bench boss sticks with UPL for Game 3 in Boston, or decides to give Alex Lyon a chance between the pipes.

“For me, personally, of course, I have to be ready for [Game 3],” Luukkonen said. “They don’t necessarily shoot too many pucks; they kind of just wait for their chance and flip high pucks behind our team. So, just taking the lessons away from these first two games and knowing how they play. We just have to be ready for it.”

The series now shifts to Massachusetts, and the Sabres no longer have home-ice advantage. They’ll look to steal it back against the Bruins in Game 3, which is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET at TD Garden on Thursday night.

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