He had received some glitches in the media from Rasmus Dahlin before the game. But when the players stepped off the ice after the meeting between the Boston Bruins and the Buffalo Sabers, it was Linus Ullmark who got the last laugh. The 28-year-old goalkeeper saved 35 of 36 shots when the Bruins won 4-1 and was named one of the match’s three stars in his return to Buffalo.
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– This will be a memory for life, without a doubt, Ullmark told NHL.com/sv. Very special.
– I do not really know what I thought from the beginning, it was like an out-of-body experience almost on the warm-up and at the national anthems. But when the puck was released, I was ready and focused.
It was already in 2012 that Ullmark was drafted by the Buffalo Sabers, then in the sixth round as 163rd player in total. After another three seasons in the Modo Hockey organization, the Swede took the step over to North America in connection with the 2015-16 season. The following six seasons, the Swede made 117 NHL appearances for the organization, of which the last three seasons more or less as first goalkeeper.
When the Sabers and Ullmark could not agree on a contract extension over the summer, the Bruins were quick to intercept the goalkeeper in the NHL Free Agency. The result was a four-year contract worth an average of five million dollars per season.
– It felt right from the start, said Ullmark in connection with the contract writing. There was nothing with Buffalo and then Boston came and knocked on the door right away. Then we started the process. I look forward to what is to come.
Every now and then, Ullmark probably did not know that his first match wearing the Bruins shirt would be away against the Buffalo Sabers. But that’s exactly how the hockey gods made it happen.
Video: BUF-BOS: Ullmark saves with the back of the leg
And after 97.2 in save percentage and two recorded points, it is difficult to imagine a better start to the adventure in Bruins than what Ullmark got the night before Saturday, Swedish time.
– He was absolutely incredible, said Bruins back Brandon Carlo about his new teammate. He kept us in the game, especially in the first two periods. He was faced with some situations we should have done a better job of covering away, but was like a brick wall between the posts. He played incredibly well.
Ullmark himself was all the more humble:
– I had some bounces with me too, of course, but that’s how it is in hockey sometimes. Sometimes you have it with you, sometimes not. The guys also did a great job of filling the other net with pucks.
Of course it was so.
Goals from David pastrnak and Tomas Nosek made sure the Bruins took a 2-0 lead from the first period. With a big-playing Ullmark between the posts, that was all the team needed to build on. Charlie Coyle arranged 3-0 for the Bruins in the second period in numerical superiority and Boston went into the third period with a chance to arrange a zero for their goalkeeper.
Victor Olofsson however, had other plans.
With 5:25 left to play in the third period, the Sabers forward found a gap between Ullmark’s leg protection and coaxed the puck. However, it was the only puck that passed the Swede in the match and Taylor Hall was able to determine the final score to 4-1 in an empty cage.
No zero for Ullmark then. But well a win and also a spectacular save with the inside of the leg protection on a backhand shot off Dylan Cozens in the first period.
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– I thought the puck went in first, Ullmark explained. When it did not hit my right leg guard, my feeling was that it would go in.
Of course it did not. Ullmark saved that puck and another 34 Bruins attempts on the way to a victory he will soon forget. And even though the goalkeeper himself behaved respectfully after the match and avoided directing any insults or sneers at his old teammates in the Sabers, some of that product still appeared.
Signed Brad Marchand of course, who else.
– We are extremely pleased that the Sabers made the decision to release him to us.
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