Joseph Woll did his best to steal a game for the Maple Leafs, stopping 31 of 33 shots, but in the end, it was not enough. Toronto lost to the Sabres 3-2 in a shootout at the KeyBank Center.
With their season in shambles and their captain’s knee in pieces, the Leafs entered the night looking for any positives to help get through the remainder of their schedule. Woll emerged as the one bright spot on Saturday.
Buffalo took the lead 2:01 into the first. Owen Power scored his 7th of the season on a wrist shot from the slot. Zach Benson won a battle behind the net and centred the puck out in front. Power beat a trio of Toronto defenders to it before ripping it by Woll.
The Leafs tied the game at 6:09 of the period. Sabres’ newly acquired defenceman, Luke Schenn, gave the puck away in front of the Buffalo goal, Dakota Joshua gathered it in and snapped a shot by Alex Lyon to even the score at 1-1.
Max Domi put Toronto ahead early in the second period. The veteran winger, playing in his 800th game, tapped in a pass from William Nylander on a two-on-one to make it 2-1.
Buffalo fought back, scoring the equalizer at the 11:21 mark. Jack Quinn netted his 16th of the season on the power play, firing home a shot from the face-off dot after receiving a beautiful behind-the-back pass from Noah Ostlund.
The game remained tied going into the third.
Neither team scored in the final period, with the Leafs managing only two shots and Woll denying all ten Sabres attempts. The overtime solved nothing, so it came down to a shootout.
Toronto failed on both of its attempts. Quinn and Alex Tuch scored for Bullafo, giving the Sabres the 3-2 win.
Next up, Toronto heads to Minnesota on Sunday to take on the Wild.
