BOSTON — The Buffalo Sabres, struggling to stay alive until the last seconds expired,

never threw in the towel. The final moments of their season, however, featured yellow ones

dropping all around them as they hung their heads toward the ice.

The Sabres' Stanley Cup dreams came to a first-round conclusion Monday in TD Garden. The

Boston Bruins and their towel-waving faithful sent the Sabres home for the summer with a 4-3

loss. The Game Six setback gave the Bruins a 4-2 series victory and a spot in the second

round.

The Sabres stood stunned on the bench as the Black and Gold backers cheered their

victors and tossed towels from the stands. Goaltender Ryan Miller's move to center ice to

start the traditional handshake line broke the Sabres' trance, but the broken hearts remained.

"You want to make the playoffs, and being out of hockey, being done in April still hurts,"

Sabres forward Adam Mair said. "It was a good regular season. We ended a little early. It's

not where we wanted to be. We wanted to go deep in the playoffs, and we didn't do that."

As expected, the finale was every bit as tense as the games leading up to it. It was the

fourth time one goal was the margin of victory, with the teams splitting four goals in the

final period in a frantic rush to the end.

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"The disappointment is huge," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "It was a series where there

wasn't much breathing space the whole series."

When things are tight, it's up to stars and special teams to make the difference. Boston's

did. Buffalo's didn't.

The Bruins' power play finished the series with six goals on 22 chances. The Sabres will

spend the offseason thinking about no power-play goals in the playoffs, failing to connect on

all 19 opportunities.

They'll also be haunted by blowing two-goal leads in Games Two and Four, giving Boston a

prime opportunity to advance.

"Name me a team that's won a series and blew two leads and has gone 0-for on the power

play," Sabres right wing Jason Pominville said. "You're probably not going to find one."

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Unfortunately for the Sabres, they also won't find Tim Connolly and Derek Roy in the goal

column. The team's top point producers from the regular season finished with no goals in the

six games.

"Our top two centermen struggled, and that definitely hurt us," Ruff said.

Connolly recorded just one assist while Roy had two.

"There's no excuse with that," Connolly said. "I was fine, pretty much pain free. It was

terrible, terrible play."

The wild third period, with a spot in the next round tempting Boston and a trip home for

Game Seven hanging in the balance for Buffalo, began with the Bruins holding a 2-1 lead.

The Sabres had two chances to tie in the opening 1:11 of the third. Vanek just failed to

connect on Mair's cross-ice pass and Tyler Ennis ran out of room at the side of the net.

Boston's potent power play earned a four-minute chance to put the Sabres away when Mair was

given a double-minor for high-sticking with 3:06 gone. Buffalo, which had already allowed two

power-play goals, stymied the Bruins until a few seconds after the penalty.

Milan Lucic, held without a point, finally got one with 7:18 elapsed. The big winger

controlled the puck behind the net and fed David Krejci in the slot. His one-timer sailed over

the glove of a helpless Miller, giving Boston a 3-1 lead.

The advantage lasted only 22 seconds. Boston forward Michael Ryder turned over the puck in

his own zone, and the pass slid right into Nathan Gerbe's hammer zone. The former Boston

College star wound and fired as goalie Tuukka Rask slammed his stick to the ice in

frustration.

The Sabres, who'd been motionless on the bench with the yellow towels waving in the air

behind them, leaped to their feet with hopes of a comeback.

Old friend Miroslav Satan stalled their dreams with 5:11 left. Miller stoned the former

Sabres sniper with a stellar save seconds earlier, but the Bruins maintained pressure. Miller

stopped Dennis Wideman's shot, but the rebound went to the other side of the crease, where

Satan was waiting.

He calmly deposited the puck into the open cage, and the 17,565 fans went bonkers.

"We didn't want to go back to Buffalo," said Rask, who allowed a goal by Thomas Vanek with

1:13 to play but refused to allow a tying tally.

"It was tough to give up the third and fourth goals," Mair said. "Those were the ones I

thought that really hurt."

The Sabres, who had scored the opening goal in the first five games, gave up the first two

Monday. Both were on Boston power plays, with Krejci scoring in the first period and Mark

Recchi doubling the lead in the second on a four-on-three.

Patrick Kaleta's second-period goal got the Sabres within one, setting up final-period

drama and eyes that needed towels — just not the ones with the Bruins logo that were

readily available.

"It just wasn't enough," Kaleta said. "We had the potential. I just don't know what to tell

you."