Toronto Maple Leafs Knock Off Buffalo Sabres 4-3

Against all odds the Toronto Maple Leafs continue to hang in the playoff race.

Faced with another must-win situation against the very team they are chasing, the Leafs defeated the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 in front of 19,483 fans at the Air Canada Centre.

For the second time in two and a half weeks, Toronto (35-32-10) won at home against their division rivals Buffalo (38-29-9). Not only did the Leafs win but they managed the feat in regulation preventing the Sabres from picking up any points in the process.

“It’s almost a playoff atmosphere,” said Leafs rookie forward Nazem Kadri who notched two key assists and was a big factor in the Leafs win.

“Feels like we’re in the playoffs already. Obviously we’re not but this is a huge game for us to keep going, obviously we wanted to stay in the run and get these two points and a win in regulation was big for us.”

Clarke MacArthur continued to haunt his old team as he scored a goal and collected two assists.

“It’s always nice to score against your old team, I’m not going to lie there, it feels great. But at this point in the year, we’re just trying to get the two points anyway we can do it.”

Mikhail Grabovski put away the game winning goal in the second period while Reimer made 28 saves for his 18^th win of the season.

After losing the first three games of the season against Buffalo, Toronto has won the last three, but a lot has changed – at least for the Leafs.

“Look at the lineups, we’re an entirely different team,” said Leafs coach Ron Wilson.

“From the goalie to a couple of the defencemen are different, and number of forwards are different than the team that played Buffalo earlier in the season. Not the same team. Buffalo is the same team and we’ve made a lot of changes and we’re better now. Simple.”

The game couldn’t have started any better for the Leafs as they scored first – something they have done very little this season. At just 1:34 mark of the first period, Dion Phaneuf wired a bullet shot over Miller’s glove from just inside the blueline to give the Leafs an early 1-0 lead. Judging by Miller’s reaction, it looked as though he just missed the puck. It was a shot that he should have stopped.

With just over a minute left in the period, Kadri skated out from behind the goal and drove the puck at the net. His shot on goal was stopped by Miller, but Darryl Boyce tapped in the loose puck in the crease to make it 2-0.

However, a minute later and with only 11.6 seconds remaining, Buffalo on a three-on-two rush made a couple of passes before making it to an open Thomas Vanek in front of the net.

Vanek made no mistake and beat Reimer up high and over the glove to make it 2-1.

The Leafs have been one the NHL’s best teams since January 1^st despite being a very young team. Perhaps the most impressive part of the Leafs’ improbable push for the postseason is their ability to stay resilient. A perfect example was in the second period of last night’s contest.

MacArthur had just put the Leafs up 3-1, when the Sabres scored less than a minute later to cut the deficit to 3-2. 30 seconds later, Leafs defenceman Carl Gunnarsson coughed up the puck in front of Reimer and veteran Rob Niedermayer took full advantage of the gaffe to tie the game at 3-3.

Wilson called a timeout immediately and settled his team down as the momentum had clearly shifted in the direction of the Sabres. The timeout seemed to work as Toronto regrouped and refocused. 

Later in the period, on what looked like an innocent rush, Phil Kessel skated over the Sabres blueline and then made a great pass to Grabovski who shook off a checker and streaked up the middle. His shot just squeezed through Miller’s legs to give the Leafs the lead again. Toronto stole back the momentum and were up 4-3 after 40 minutes.

“Just a couple of unfortunate bounces and I like to have at least one of those but middle of the game you can’t focus on any of that,” said Leafs rookie netminder James Reimer on the two quick goals by Buffalo.

“Can’t let any negative thoughts creep in your head and just got to let it go and keep going. Ronnie (Ron Wilson) called a timeout and I think as a team we collected ourselves, knew we were playing well and kept going and we got a nice fourth goal to give us the lead again and we carried that through.”

The third period saw both teams get plenty of chances but it was Miller who was tested the most. The Leafs’ opportunities to score were far more dangerous but Miller shut the door to keep his team in the game, even stopping Boyce and MacArthur point blank.

The atmosphere in the building became tense as the clock wound down, especially in the final minute when Buffalo pulled Miller for the extra attacker. But the Leafs held on for an exciting 4-3 win in a nail biting finish.

The Leafs will now be cheering for the New York Rangers as they visit Buffalo this evening. The Leafs could use all the help they can get at this point but will continue to chart their own destiny when they visit the Boston Bruins on Thursday night.

“We’ll be cheering on blue, white and red for sure…it’ll help and it’d be nice if we could get a little extra help from another team in the league, something we hadn’t had a ton of down this whole stretch,” said Leafs defenceman Luke Schenn.

With just five games left in the season, Wilson knows his team’s chances are slim.

“We’re going to try and win all of our games and see what happens,” said Wilson. “We don’t get in, we don’t get in but we’ll give it our best shot.”

1st star: Clarke MacArthur – Toronto

2nd star: Nazem Kadri – Toronto