Sabres rally to keep playoff hopes alive
BUFFALO 6 TORONTO 5 (OT)
BUFFALO• Moments after scoring the goal that gave the Buffalo Sabres a 6-5 overtime win against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Derek Roy stood in the team’s dressing room and tried to explain how the team had come from behind in a game that seemed all but lost in the first period. “This is our season,” he said. Tuesday night’s game was also a microcosm of their season. The Sabres spotted the Leafs a 3-0 lead in the first 17 minutes. But just like their remarkable climb up the standings — they were in last place in the Eastern Conference on Jan. 24 — they refused to quit. By the end of the second period, Buffalo was down 3-2. And after Jordan Leopold scored with 1:53 remaining in the third period, the game went into overtime.
It was there that Roy completed the comeback, firing a wrist shot past rookie goaltender Ben Scrivens for his second power-play goal of the night. For that, Roy was awarded the golden helmet by his teammates and the Sabres kept their season very much alive.
“That’s not how you draw them up, but that’s a hell of a way to win it,” head coach Lindy Ruff said. “That game had everything. For the last home game in the regular season, that game had everything.”
He emphasized “regular season,” because the Buffalo head coach expects to be back in Buffalo at least twice more before the year is done. It might not have happened had the Sabres lost. But with the win, the team has the same number of points as eighthplace Washington, although the Capitals hold an insurmountable lead in the first tiebreaker, regulation and overtime wins.
That means Buffalo, which plays the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday and Boston Bruins on Saturday, will need to get some help before all this is done. But it also means that if they continue to win, the playoffs are possible.
“I thought we reacted well, but we didn’t come out with the right game,” Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller said. “Enjoy the excitement for one night, but we have to be better.”
Twelve seconds into the first period, Carl Gunnarsson was circling behind the Toronto net when Marcus Foligno blindsided him with a hit that sent the defenceman’s helmet skyward and forced Gunnarsson to leave the game with a suspected shoulder injury.
The Leafs’ top line countered by scoring three goals on 13 shots to take a 3-0 lead. Tyler Bozak scored twice and had an assist. Phil Kessel had three assists. And rookie Matt Frattin, had a goal and an assist and a fight with Foligno.
With time running out, the Sabres attacked Toronto’s goal and sent the game to overtime on a goalmouth scramble where the officials curiously did not whistle the play dead and allowed the Sabres to dig through bodies for the puck.
“If I say what I want to say, there will be a nominal fine,” Leafs head coach Randy Wilson said of the play. “The issue here is we have to defend better.”