In the dumps
Woeful Sabres snap Maple Leafs’ 13-game winning streak at the ACC, deny Buds in their quest to shatter club record for wins
Before the Maple Leafs could get too far ahead of themselves, their closest geographical rivals pulled them back to earth.
All good things must come to an end, though few thought Toronto’s 13-game home winning streak and the bid for a club-record 46th overall would be cut down by the lastplace Buffalo Sabres.
Jack Eichel, in his first game against Toronto this year, scored twice in a head-to-head duel with good pal Auston Matthews as the Sabres came back in the third period for a 3-2 win Monday at the ACC. The Leafs misfired badly, 26 past the net in addition to 41 on target. Coach Mike Babcock gave the stink eye to the postgame sheet as he perused it, but the Sabres also made them work all night, no resemblance to a team almost 40 points behind Toronto.
“We’re just down the road from these guys,” winger Mitch Marner reminded. “They play like they’re in the playoffs, a tight game. Every game they’ve played us hard (Buffalo leads the series 2-1 with one to go here again Monday).”
Eichel brushed off Nikita Zaitsev and steered a backhander through Frederik Andersen, who looked ready to lead the Leafs to another franchise high with 27 home wins and notch his career high 36th. But all that will have to wait another 48 hours until the Florida Panthers are here, a game that does have playoff implications for the desperate visitors.
“To be honest, I thought we played them well with not a lot of offensive opportunities,” said Nazem Kadri. “Their goaltender was good (Chad Johnson foiled the Leafs again), but they were a resilient group.”
Johnson found out at 4:15 p.m. he’d be replacing an injured Linus Ullmark, but went out and beat the Leafs on Bay St. for the first time since Jan. 22.
“It’s important (but) not the end of world,” Johnson said of halting the streak. “We’re not going out, throwing a big party for it. But it’s always nice beating that team regardless of the situation.”
Eichel out-pointed Matthews 2-1, giving him 11 in eight games against the Leafs, another reason to think these two will generate more intense meetings as their rebuilds come to fruition.
“It starts with me and the leaders on the team,” said Eichel, who was coming off a high ankle sprain a few games ago. “(Coach Phil Housley) challenged us this week. It’s a big win, they’re the hottest team at home in the league right now. It’s an emotional game. We took a pretty good licking on Saturday night in New York. It’s a really good response from the group.”
In all the talk about the team records, Babcock had been warning about the Sabres’ potential.
“They have good players and they’ll get more good players and get better and better. We carried play tonight and all that stuff and we didn’t win. We turned it over a bit too much, too cute and in the end, we go home disappointed. ”
Monday’s crowd of more than 19,000 was getting antsy as the Sabres threatened to blank Toronto through 40 minutes. Adding to their angst, centre Tomas Plekanec, yet to get a point in 12 games since the trade with Montreal, shot high and wide on a 2-on-1 with Kasperi Kapenen. But Babcock thought their line with Andreas Johnsson was about Toronto’s best.
“They ended up minus-2 and didn’t deserve it one bit,” Babcock said. “Two games in a row they’ve dominated play.”
Luck changed when Patrick Marleau, appearing in his 700th consecutive NHL game, was able to bump a Sabre off the puck behind Johnson. A perfect Marner backhand pass to Kadri tied it 1-1.
Toronto’s go-ahead goal came on a power play just before the horn, the second unit able to work the puck to Marleau for a tap-in Matthews had the assist after some earlygame frustration, giving him points in all three games since returning from a shoulder injury.
But Andersen had just extended himself in a series of saves, when a Casey Nelson point shot made it through traffic and off defenceman Roman Polak’s skate as he battled with Scott Wilson in front. Babcock unsuccessfully challenged for interference.