The Boston Bruins blew a two-goal third period lead, melting down in their own zone and lost a very winnable Game 1 to the Buffalo Sabres, 4-3. They completely fell apart with the game on the line.

This one hurts.

The B’s had a 2-0 lead and were doing a good job taking the crowd of the game, but when the B’s failed to clear their zone when they had a chance, the Sabres got on the board with 7:58 left in regulation. Tage Thompson got a loose behind the net and, with his long reach, the 6-foot-7 All-Star was able to tuck it into the shortside.

Thompson then tied it with 4:16 left in the third. Alex Tuch knocked Andrew Peeke off the puck behind the net and got it out front to Thompson, who buried his second of the game under Jeremy Swayman’s glove.

Then the Sabres took their first lead of the game with 3:21 left in the third. Hampus Lindholm’s stick broke on a clear attempt behind the net and Thompson grabbed it. He fed Mattias Samuelsson and the defenseman buried it shortside.

Tuch then ended it with an empty-netter with 1:12.

David Pastrnak scored with a 7.2 seconds left but that was not enough time for a miracle comeback.

Sabres fans, waiting 15 years for this moment, showed out in a big, from the pregame bash in front of the arena before the game to nearly filling KeyBank Center for warmups.

And it was loud to start the game.

But the Sabres themselves did not take advantage of vibe early on. Swayman was strong (14 first period saves) but it wasn’t a full-on barrage from Buffalo. The Sabres got a chunk of their shots on their only power play of the period, which came on a Nikita Zadorov shove that was translated into a cross-check.

And it was the Bruins who got the opening period’s only goal at 10:52.

Pastrnak had his shot blocked in the high slot and before Ryan McLeod could gather the loose puck, Elias Lindholm buried him. That left an open lane for Morgan Geekie to step into the puck and rip a snapshot past Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.

The B’s got two power plays in the first and did not have much by way of an attack. But the second one, which came on a ticky-tack hooking call on Jason Zucker with 1:10 left in the period.

In the waning seconds of the period, Geekie looked like he had a sure goal on a backdoor play that produces a wide-open net for him from the bottom of the left circle. But who could not get a handle on the puck and the chance passed him by.

Rest of the advantage went by the wayside when Pavel Zacha held Tuch with 23 seconds left on the Bruin PP.

The B’s killed the balance of the Zacha penalty and again had a chance to go up by two when Pastrnak was sprung for a breakaway. Pastrnak went deep into his bag of tricks but it appeared that, in tight, the puck hit the shaft of Luukkonen’s stick to thwart the try.

Pastrnak would get another breakaway midway through the period and this time he chose to shoot, but Luukkonen made the initial save and stopped Pastrnak when he tapped at the rebound.

Though they were getting the odd glittering chance, the B’s were spending too much time in their own zone.

Peeke was called for holding Thompson, but the B’s did an excellent job of killing that one, too, with the Buffalo fans getting audibly frustrated with their team.

The B’s clung to that one-goal into the second intermission but Buffalo outshot them 13-4 in the second period, and three of those four shots came on the Pastrnak breakaways.

But when the third period began, the B’s spent some time in the O-zone and it quickly paid off. Pastrnak fed Geekie in front and Luukkonen made a great save but the rebound came out to Elias and he buried it to give the B’s a 2-0 lead 1:08 into the third.

Pastrnak got a slashing penalty at 2:41 when he knocked Josh Dunne’s stick out of his hands and they were able to kill that, one as well.

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