News

The Toronto Maple Leafs put in yet another spirited effort last night with a familiar result – a close loss.

They even threw a scare into the Buffalo Sabres with a goal with 37.3 seconds left in the third period that sent the game into overtime, but Tim Connolly ripped a slapshot to the top corner at 1:04 of overtime on a power play to give the Sabres a 3-2 win.

The problem is, you cannot surrender a lead to the best goaltender in the NHL and expect to pull the game back. The Leafs blasted away at Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller in the third period, outshooting the hosts 16-5, but had to settle for a point with the overtime loss in front of 18,300 fans at HSBC Arena.

This left the Leafs with a 1-7-3 record and the frustrated feeling that they should have more to show for their improved play on this five-game road trip, which ends tonight in Montreal against the Canadiens.

“Sometimes the hockey gods are with you,” said Leafs centre Matt Stajan, who saw both sides of that coin in the last two minutes of play. “But it feels like we're getting the short end of the stick a lot this year.”

The Leafs probably felt their luck was turning in the last minute of the third period. Stajan was given a penalty for interference when he set a pick on Sabres forward Clarke MacArthur. But the Leafs pulled goaltender Jonas Gustavsson to make it five skaters on five and it paid off.

Mikhail Grabovski deflected a shot from Tomas Kaberle past Miller with 37.3 seconds left on the clock to send the game into overtime. But when overtime started, Stajan was still in the penalty box so the Sabres went on the power play and they cashed in.

“We've got three losses so far in overtime so we have to bear down on those,” Kaberle said. “That's a big three points left on the sidelines.

“I thought we deserved better. We have keep bearing down on our shots and going to the net hard. The first few games [of the season], we were standing around waiting for empty nets.”

The Sabres took a 2-1 lead into the third period and it would have been a few goals greater had it not been for the play of Gustavsson. The rookie was awfully busy through the second period as the Leafs' defensive play loosened up considerably.

At the start of the third, the Leafs came at Miller hard. Alexei Ponikarovsky hit the post in the early going but that was as close as the Leafs came to scoring until Grabovski's deflection.

“Ryan Miller did a great job and we got a little unlucky,” Leafs head coach Ron Wilson said. “But I'm not discouraged. We're doing a lot of things well. Nobody can say we're not playing well and not going 100-per-cent.”

Through the first two periods, each of the Sabres top three lines kept Gustavsson busy, which was a reflection of how they managed an 8-1-1 start to the NHL season.

“It has been the depth of scoring of four lines that has really been a strength,” Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said. “The play of our team defensively has been very good. The number of shots we have created, and the number we have given up, there has been a correlation there. It has been a total team effort, it really has.”

Gustavsson had to face three breakaways in the second period and managed to make stops on two of them. On the third, Leaf winger Niklas Hagman fired the puck into the middle in the high slot in the Sabres' zone and it went right to Buffalo winger Jason Pominville. He fired a long pass up the ice to Connolly, who beat Gustavsson with a wrist shot to the lower corner of the net at 10:39 to give the Sabres the lead.

Fortunately for the Leafs, this did not rattle their young goaltender. Less than two minutes later, he coolly ended a Sabres flurry with a big save on Drew Stafford.

Earlier in the period, Gustavsson stopped Mike Grier and MacArthur on breakaways. The save on MacArthur showed why Gustavsson is called The Monster, as he used his long reach to snare the puck along the ice when MacArthur tried a deke.

The Leafs had some good chances of their own in the entertaining, up-and-down game but their forwards still cannot bury them. Lee Stempniak, a native of the Buffalo area, took the puck away from Connolly for a shorthanded breakaway early in the second period but his deke on Miller was rather feeble and the goaltender had no trouble making the save.

The Leafs started the game strongly, as they have for every game on this road trip.

“They have improved the last two games,” Ruff said of the Leafs before the game. “The Anaheim game was a penalty-filled affair where their power play dominated and won a game. I thought the first 30 minutes of the Dallas game, they controlled the game, and Dallas scored on a redirection late that gave them an opportunity to win in overtime.

“Three points in their last two games and they are looking to come in here and try to upset us.”

The Leafs matched the Sabres rush-for-rush and then got away from the discipline they showed in the last few games, which allowed the Sabres to score the game's first goal.

One minute after Kaberle took a hooking penalty, Stempniak was too careless with his stick and was issued a high-sticking penalty. On the ensuing five-on-three power play, Stafford scored his fourth goal of the season by knocking in a rebound at 15:11.

The Leafs were fortunate to survive the next few minutes, as they took another penalty to give the Sabres a second five-on-three power play. That ended when Stafford was penalized for high sticking, which gave the Leafs the chance to tie the score.

Just as Stafford stepped back on the ice, Leaf defenceman Ian White fired a shot from the point that caught the top corner of the net to tie the score 1-1.