The Toronto Maple Leafs broke their three-game losing streak with a 4-3 overtime comeback win against the Sabres Saturday evening at the ScotiaBank Arena.
The back end of the home and home did not start well for the Leafs. Tage Thompson put the Sabres on top at the 13:58 mark of the first period, ripping home a wrist shot past Cayden Primeau to make it 1-0.
The Leafs did manage to tie the game toward the end of the period. Nick Robertson scored his first of the season, beating Buffalo goalie Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen. Linemates Auston Matthews and Easton Cowan fought for the puck behind the Sabres’ net. Cowan finally won the battle and centred a perfect pass to Robertson, who did not miss.
Toronto took the lead early in the second. With about two minutes gone, Matias Maccelli slammed one in from the side of the net to make it 2-1. The winger benefited from some nifty stickhandling by John Tavares, who weaved through three Buffalo players and found Maccelli, who jammed it home.
Buffalo evened things up at the 14:23 mark, when defenseman Bowen Byram flipped one through traffic that Primeau did not see until he was picking up the puck from the back of the net.
The teams went into the third period tied 2-2, and the game looked bleak for Toronto when Thompson scored his second of the game for the Sabres on the power play at 7:06. But Dakota Joshua had an answer. The big forward snuck a no-look shot past the glove hand of Luukkonen to re-tie the game 3-3 at 13:10.
The game headed into overtime, where Tavares finished off his first star night and the Sabres with a breakaway goal to win it 4-3.
The Leafs are back in action Tuesday night when they face Calgary at ScotiaBank Arena.
