Buffalo Sabres goaltender Craig Anderson stretches to make a save as Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Timothy Liljegren and Sabres defenceman Jacob Bryson battle in Toronto on April 12.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The Sabres continued their mastery over the Maple Leafs on Tuesday, spanking them 5-2 at Scotiabank Arena for the third time in four meetings this season.
Kyle Okposo, Tage Thompson, Jeff Skinner, Rasmus Dahlin and Rasmus Asplund each scored for Buffalo and 40-year-old goalie Craig Anderson stopped 24 of 26 shots in his third victory of the campaign over Toronto.
The Sabres, sixth in the Atlantic Division, won the last three games between them by a combined 15-5. They are the only team to beat the Maple Leafs three times during the 2021-22 campaign.
“It wasn’t good,” Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We had four games against this team and we were no-shows in all four. It has been puzzling all season.
“Games like this is why we still competing for home ice in the first round of the playoffs.”
Toronto is second in the Atlantic Division behind the Florida Panthers and with a win over Montreal on Saturday secured a berth in the postseason for the sixth straight year.
Toronto is 47-20-6 but losses to lesser opponents – three to Buffalo and two to Arizona among them – have plagued them all year.
“I do think we were ready to play, I think it is just a matter of execution,” defenceman Morgan Rielly said. “But when they outwork us and outplay us, it leaves you wondering.”
Timothy Liljegren and Alexander Kerfoot had the Maple Leafs’ goals. Rielly had assists on both and now has 10 goals and a career-best 53 assists on the season.
Auston Matthews will have to wait at least two days to register his 100th point. Toronto faces off against Alexander Ovechkin and the Capitals on home ice on Thursday before travelling to Ottawa to meet the Senators on Saturday.
When he notches No. 100, Matthews will join Darryl Sittler and Doug Gilmour as only the third player in franchise history to reach the milestone.
Matthews entered the contest with 58 goals and 99 points and had scored 51 times over his last 50 games. On Monday he was chosen the NHL’s player of the week for last week after ringing up seven goals and assisting on four in four outings.
During the span he had three goals against Tampa Bay, three assists versus Florida and scored twice each against Dallas and Montreal, the last in a triumph that clinched the spot in the postseason.
Earlier, Matthews became the first Maple Leafs player to net 50 goals in a season since Dave Andreychuk in the 1993-1994 campaign.
“He’s out of control but we like it,” Justin Holl, the Toronto defenceman, said earlier in the day.
It was the last of four engagements this season with the Sabres, who have given the Maple Leafs a hard time. Even the one Toronto win – 5-4 in November – was unconvincing.
Buffalo had won two of the previous three, including a 5-2 defeat at the Heritage Classic at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton.
“We wish we didn’t have nights like this,” Keefe said. “If we didn’t we’d been in a race for the President’s Trophy.”
The trophy is awarded to the club with the most points accrued over 82 games. That team also has home-ice advantage as long as it is in the playoffs.
In a dull first 20 minutes, Buffalo got on the board on a goal by Okposo with 12:35 left in the first period. There was one second left in a two-minute penalty on Rielly for high-sticking when Okposo scored his 19th of the year.
The only other buzz in the crowd came in conjunction with Matthews’s two sharp wrist shots, both steered away by Anderson.
The Maple Leafs tied it 1-1 2:09 into the second period when Liljegren whacked a puck into the net after it ricocheted off the boards behind. Then Thompson converted a penalty on Mitch Marner for tripping into a 2-1 lead at 9:11. It was Thompson’s 33rd goal of the campaign.
Buffalo put the game away in the third with goals 1:34 apart by Skinner and Dahlin. Kerfoot scored on a power play with 11:05 to go but that was it for the home side. Asplund’s goal was an empty netter.
Keefe had hoped his team’s previous problems with the Sabres would have them ready for a battle. It didn’t happen.
“It wasn’t our best,” Kerfoot said. “It was an unfortunate showing for us. It wasn’t an acceptable performance. They have been putting it to us pretty good all year.”We are hopeful that is something that can spark our guys,” Keefe said earlier in the day. “This is the type of game that can be challenging.
With Jack Campbell hampered by an undisclosed injury, rookie Erik Kallgren got the nod in Toronto’s net. He came in 5-2-1 with a .904 save percentage and stopped 24 of 26 shots in Saturday’s victory over Montreal.
He turned away only 23 of 27 in this one.
The game marked the NHL debut of Owen Power, the player the Sabres made the first selection in the 2021 NHL draft. The 19-year-old from Mississauga is 6 foot 6, just concluded his second season at the University of Michigan and played for Canada at the Beijing Olympics earlier this year.
“I skated with him a few times over the summer,” Mark Giordano, the Toronto defenceman, said. “He’s a huge kid who can really skate. You don’t go first overall in our league if you’re not a huge talent, and he is.”
Power logged 19 minutes 50 seconds of ice time, blocked one shot, was credited with one hit and had one take-away.
“He was solid,” Matthews said. “He looked like he belonged out there.”