Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews controls the puck as he stumbles against the Buffalo Sabres during first period in Toronto on March 6.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
In their first two meetings this season the Maple Leafs and Sabres combined for 22 goals, and Buffalo had 15 of them. On Wednesday night at Scotiabank Arena neither team could barely buy one.
Auston Matthews ended it all with the winner with 40 seconds left in overtime to give Toronto a 2-1 victory. It was Matthews’s NHL-leading 54th goal of the season and came off a nice pass from Mitch Marner.
The triumph was the Maple Leafs’ ninth in their past 11 games. They play again Thursday night in Boston against the Bruins, to whom they lost at home on Monday.
Ilya Samsonov recorded 23 saves in Toronto’s net, including a leaping glove save that stopped a shot by Tage Thompson 42 seconds before Matthews’s goal.
He also stopped a dangerous deflection by Rasmus Dahlin late in regulation time.
“He has been a rock star for us,” Tyler Bertuzzi, a Maple Leafs winger, said. “It’s good to see him do his thing again and have his confidence. He’s going to be awesome for us down the stretch.”
Samsonov has struggled at times and came in with a 15-5-6 record and .883 save percentage.
“You feel good about this,” Samsonov said. “It was not an easy game for us. We lost a couple of games games to these guys this season. There is no time for celebration. Tomorrow is a big game.”
On Dec. 21 Buffalo handed Toronto its most embarrassing defeat of the season. In that 9-3 victory, the Maple Leafs took a 2-1 lead and then allowed five successive goals. The Sabres scored on a power-play, short-handed and at even strength in one period. Between them Samsonov and Martin Jones stopped just 25 of 34 shots.
“That was in all in our minds and especially at home after the last game’s loss,” Bertuzz said. “We wanted to be better at home. And that was a good game.”
A win would have given the Sabres their third in as many tries against the Leafs this season. The clubs play once more in Buffalo on March 30.
“This is an exciting building to come to,” Don Granato, the Buffalo coach, said in the afternoon. “You know it is a challenging building and you also know it is one heck of a hockey team over there that you have to be ready for so that gives you a bit of a juice.”
It was a peculiar and plodding first period without any dangerous chances. The Maple Leafs had the first six shots on net; the Sabres failed to generate one for nearly 15 minutes. Then they got 10 in a row and Toronto didn’t have a single one over the last 8 minutes 53 seconds.
“The last time we played them we gave up nine so you can understand why our guys were a little gun-shy tonight,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I liked the way we stayed with it and stayed patient and didn’t deviate from our plan.”
“A game like this shouldn’t be unexpected. These things usually correct themselves.”
Toronto finally broke the 0-0 stalemate on a wrist shot from 22 feet out by William Nylander with 17:31 left in the second period. Nylander beat Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to his left side on with an assist from Bertuzzi. The goal was Nylander’s 34th of the season and increased his team lead in points to 84.
It remained a somewhat sleepy contest until Buffalo’s left wing Victor Olofsson snapped in a crisp wrist shot from 38 feet out four minutes later. It was just Olofsson’s fifth goal of the campaign and went over Samsonov and rang in right beneath the crossbar.
The game was played with underlying tension caused by Friday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline. Toronto needs to upgrade its defence if it hopes to go on a postseason run. With scant hopes of playing past April, Buffalo is most likely going to be a seller. In the afternoon it dealt forward Casey Mittelstadt, the team’s leading scorer, to Colorado for defenceman Bowen Byram.
Kyle Okposo, the Sabres captain, acknowledged that he could also be on the trading block. The 35-year-old forward has played 17 seasons in the NHL and surpassed 20 goals four times.
“We’ll see what Friday brings,” Okposo said, acknowledging that he felt bad knowing on Saturday that it might be his last home game in Buffalo. This is his eighth year with the Sabres. “It’s a position I have never been in during my career. I am here today and just doing the best I can to lead the group.”
Matthews said he and his teammates have chatted about it this week.
“We’ll see what happens,” Matthews said.
With reports from Ilyas Hussein
Marty Klinkenberg