BOSTON -- Jack Eichel emerged from the tunnel to greet the crowd of family and friends waiting for him in the TD Garden stands.

"Ei-chel, Ei-chel" was the chant, several in the gathering wearing Eichel's No. 15 Buffalo Sabres jersey.

The rookie center, the second pick in last year's NHL draft who hails from nearby North Chelmsford, Mass., and played a year at Boston University, played his first game as a pro in his hometown -- and engineered his team's comeback 6-3 victory over the Boston Bruins on Saturday night.

Eichel, who grew up a Bruins fan, assisted on a second-period goal, tied the game with nine minutes left in a late five-goal rally, hit the empty net from his own faceoff circle and then set up center Ryan O'Reilly for his second goal, another empty netter for a four-point night -- his third multi-point game in the NHL.

How's that for a homecoming?

"I was a little bit nervous jumping on the ice for warm-ups, but just an exciting game throughout," Eichel said. "Made some mistakes, but at the end of the day it's a huge win and it's a super nice way to start this next segment for us.

"Just exciting to get a win and do it in the fashion that we did in front of so many friends and family."

Because of a break in the schedule, Eichel got to spend six days over the holidays with his family.

"It was nice to see some family and friends, just kind of unwind a little bit," he said. "It's been pretty busy for me the last few months, a little overwhelming at times, and just to go home and see the people that I've always been around – my mom, my dad, my sister, my whole family. So it's nice to spend some time at home and kind of mentally regain yourself."

Eichel snapped a seven-game goal-less streak and recorded his first multi-goal game in the NHL as the Sabres improved to 4-1-1 in their last six games (15-16-4 overall).

Left wingers Evander Kane and Jamie McGinn scored the other goals and O'Reilly and McGinn, who had the go-ahead goal 39 seconds after Eichel tied it, both had an assist in front of former Bruins goaltender Chad Johnson, who made 30 saves. He is 10-9-2 on the season.

Left winger Matt Beleskey and centers Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci scored for the Bruins.

"That was our team not respecting I guess the game of hockey," said Bruins coach Claude Julien. "When you take a lead like that and you make some of those plays that we made, you've got … yourselves to blame."

The stunning loss dropped the Bruins, who have a home-and-home with the Ottawa Senators (Sunday in Ottawa and Tuesday in Boston) before Friday's Winter Classic against the Montreal Canadiens at Gillette Stadium, to 8-9-2 at home. They are 11-2-2 on the road.

"It's definitely unacceptable going into the third with a lead and then extending it and just… stop playing the way we want to play, stop playing hockey -- just kind of very careless and tried being cute and we got the result that we… that we deserved I guess," said Bergeron.

To make things worse for the Bruins, defenseman Torey Krug left the game in the first period with what appeared to be a leg injury.

The Bruins, who went ahead 2-1 on two goals in 1:16 in the second, took a 3-1 lead when Krejci batted his own second rebound out of mid-air at 6:59 of the third period.

The visitors then attacked losing goalie Jonas Gustavsson, who made 23 saves.

The Bruins went 124:34 between goals dating back two games when they quickly erased a one-goal deficit in the second period, the teams combining for three goals in 1:52.

Kane put his team ahead on a rebound at 5:13, but right winger Loui Eriksson stole the puck and fed defenseman Kevan Miller, whose off-speed shot was tipped by Belesky past Johnson at 5:49. Just 1:18 later, left winger Brad Marchand hit Bergeron with a nifty pass and Bergeron beat Johnson to make it 2-1.

NOTES: Bruins RW David Pastrnak, out since Nov. 3 with a broken foot and on a conditioning assignment with Providence, will head to Finland on Monday for the World Juniors to join the Czech national team. GM Don Sweeney announced after the first period that the team granted permission as long as an injury to the current roster doesn't occur before then. ... Bruins LW Max Talbot served the second game of a two-game suspension. Bruins RW Jimmy Hayes played in his 200th NHL game and Sabres LW Johan Larsson suited up for his 100th. ... Buffalo LW Marcus Foligno missed his fourth straight game with an upper-body injury.