The struggling Toronto Maple Leafs recovered from a disappointing opening period with a three goal rally, but yielded their lead late in regulation and had to rely on the shootout, where Joffrey Lupul scored the deciding goal in a 4-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres at Air Canada Center on Friday night.
The Maple Leafs reached a low point in the first period against the Sabres. Playing with renewed energy after the three day holiday break, Toronto appeared to have their bottom dwelling Atlantic Division rivals on their heels, but Matt Moulson and John Scott scored within 52 seconds of each other to give Buffalo a 2-0 lead.
Toronto was outshot 15-10 and looked lost for the remainder of the first and early second, but stayed within striking distance as goalie Jonathan Bernier made up for the careless rebound on Scott’s first goal in almost four years by robbing Buffalo’s Drew Stafford early in the second.
The Leafs began to take over the contest at the midway point, as they dominated puck possession in the offensive zone as they have seen other teams do to them for most of the year. Jake Gardiner scored his second of the year on a one-timer point blast to get Toronto on the scoreboard.
Less than five minutes later, the Leafs tied the game after Sabres defenseman Andrew McBain turned over the puck in his own zone. Mason Raymond was tripped but fed the puck to Peter Holland, who quickly fired a shot over Ryan Miller’s left shoulder.
Toronto took advantage of Scott’s high sticking minor in the final minute of the middle frame, as Phil Kessel scored his first goal in almost two weeks on a nice pass from linemate James van Riemsdyk.
Buffalo pressed for the tying goal in the third, firing 13 shots at Bernier. With Toronto short-handed thanks to a questionable hooking call on Dion Phaneuf in the last minute of regulation and with Miller pulled in favor of an extra attacker, Sabres pest Steve Ott shoveled a loose puck past the Toronto goaltender with 25 seconds remaining.
The five-minute overtime was unsuccessful in determining a victor and for the fourth straight game, the Leafs had the game decided by a shootout. Lupul scored on a backhander for Toronto’s only tally and Buffalo’s three shooters(Moulson, Tyler Ennis and Zemgus Girgensons) all were unable to beat Bernier.
With the victory, the Leafs move to 19-16-3 and into a tie with Detroit for fourth place in the Atlantic Division.
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As per TSN’s Darren Dreger:
Aside from a couple of details, Phaneuf and the Leafs are very close on a 7 year, $7 mil per contract extension. Term was key. #tsn
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) December 28, 2013Listen to the new edition of Leaf Buzz with myself and CTV's Norman James:
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