BOSTON — While the Buffalo Sabres have been the standard of futility in the National Hockey League for over a decade now, the Bruins, in their current state, are now looking up at their lowly Atlantic Division rivals in terms of offensive talent.

That was clear for much of Monday night at TD Garden but it took an Alex Tuch deflection of an Owen Power shot with 10.7 second left in overtime to lift the Sabres over the B’s, 3-2. The goal came with Marat Khusnutdinov in the penalty box, spoiling a strong effort from goalie Joonas Korpisalo (28 saves).

For the second game in a row, the B’s were held to fewer than 20 shots on net, managing just 19.

At first, the first period looked like a continuation of the second period from Saturday night, when the Lightning outshot the B’s 21-0. The Sabres got the first six shots on net, one of which was a Peyton Krebs power-play goal at 4:19 after a Mark Kastelic tripping penalty.

But the B’s did something in the first period that they did not do on Saturday night. They got angry at their situation. A fourth line shift that ended with a kerfuffle in the Buffalo crease produced a Bruin power play. Then when old friend Connor Clifton took a boarding penalty, the B’s had a 51-second 5-on-3. They couldn’t capitalize on that, but they eventually took a 2-1 lead before the period was out.

First came a big boy fight between two towering men, Nikita Zadorov and Jordan Greenway, both of whom stand 6-foot-6. After Greenway landed a decent shot, Zadorov caught Greenway with a punch to the side of the head then pushed the Sabre to the ice.

Both goals came from the first line. First, Pavel Zacha tied it at 13:00 with his 14th of the year. Operating on the right wall, David Pastrnak passed it to Morgan Geekie low in the right circle. Geekie did a great job of buying time so Zacha could move into the slot, where he received Geekie’s pass and beat Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who’d playing for the Geekie shot.

Geekie then gave the B’s the lead with his 23rd goal of the year at 15:13. Parker Wotherspoon sprung him for a partial breakaway. Buffalo defenseman Mattias Samuelsson initially tied up Geekie’s stick but the Bruin fought through it to beat Luukkonen.

In the second period, some of the same problems the B’s faced on Saturday with the long change cropped up again (they were outshot 9-4) though the Sabres did not dominate the period like Tampa did. But Buffalo did tie it up at 12:48. As play moved up and down the ice and both teams just missed on passes that could have led to scoring chances, the Sabres finally cashed in on one when, from the left dot, defenseman Owen Power sniped one over Joonas Korpisalo’s shoulder.

The B’s did have a couple of good chances. Pastrnak had a breakaway but Luukkonen squeezed the five-hole to deny him. Later in the period, Zacha had a clean break-in but he couldn’t get it through Luukkonen’s shortside.

The game went into the third tied 2-2 but the Sabres started it with 1:53 of power-play time after Ian Mitchell was called for tripping late in the second.

The B’s were able to kill that off and then needed a tremendous diving save from Korpisalo on Clifton at 8:05 to keep it even.

Then, with 5:13 left in regulation, Luukkonen robbed Elias Lindholm, whose shot looked like it was labeled for the shortside.

Late in regulation, Mason Lohrei coughed up the puck to Zach Benson and Korpisalo bailed him out and get the game to overtime.

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