One of these days, the Bruins’ struggle to score goals will cost them. But the Buffalo Sabres, forever searching for traction in the Atlantic Division and missing a couple of of their best forwards because of injury (Josh Norris and Zach Benson), were not the team to make them pay for it on Saturday at the Garden.

The B’s had countless chances to put the Sabres away but it wasn’t until Sean Kuraly tapped in Elias Lindholm’s pass that was headed into the empty net with a 2.2 seconds left in the third period could the B’s rest easy, taking home a 3-1 win and improving their record to 3-0 on the young season.

This one should not have been as close as it was.

The Bruins played their most dominant period of the season in the opening 20 minutes, outshooting the Sabres 17-2 – it felt like it was even more lopsided – but they managed just a 1-0 lead.

The goal came on their 14th shot of the period at 15:48 and for the second time in as many games, it was the second line that gave the B’s the first lead of the game.

Jordan Harris, making his Bruin debut in place of the injured Hampus Lindholm (day-to-day, lower body), moved down from his left point position to gather an Andrew Peeke shot that was off the mark and rimmed around to Harris’ side. From the bottom of left circle, Harris made put it on a tee for Pavel Zacha, who ripped home a one-timer from the middle of the left circle for his first of circle.

If not for Buffalo goalie Alex Lyon, the B’s could have have up by two or three goals. They had a couple of active power plays on which Lyon shut the door. David Pastrnak fired the puck eight times and landed it on net five times in the first period.

Meanwhile, there was an undercurrent of malevolence coming from the Sabres’ Mason Geertsen (6-foot-5, 231 pounds), who got into a couple of jawing matches with 6-foot-7, 255-pound Nikita Zadorov, but nothing came of it.

Thanks to a couple of Bruin penalties in the first 5:38 of the second period, the Sabres made the shot clock look a little more respectable. Their best chance actually came on a delayed call on Fraser Minten when Jeremy Swayman made a terrific stop on a backdoor shot from Peyton Krebs.

The B’s had a couple of really good chances on the two kills, the first one a 2-on-1 with Minten feeding Tanner Jeannot but Jeannot missed the net. The second one came off a Mark Kastelic steal and partial break-in that drew a slashing penalty on Owen Power.

The ensuing power play was unsuccessful – Lyon robbed Lindholm on the best chance – but the hockey gods rewarded Kastelic for his hustle at 10:21. After the fourth line applied some good pressure, Kastelic retrieved a loose puck out high by the right point and he just flung it toward the net. It hit Sabre defenseman Connor Timmins in front and trickled through Lyon for Kastelic’s first of the year and a 2-0 advantage.

But the B’s let the Sabres hang around and the visitors cut the lead in half at 9:46 of the third period on a rough shift from Andrew Peeke. Peeke’s pass up the middle from his own zone got knocked down in the neutral zone. The Sabres counter-attacked and scored on a deflected shot of their own as Jason Zucker’s shot went off Peeke’s stick blade and into the top shelf over Swayman’s blocker.