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BUFFALO — The Toronto Maple Leafs' traditional postgame scarf of Buffalo-style chicken wings was a much more savoury experience in their dressing room at the HSBC Arena this season.
In a building that hasn't been kind to the Leafs, Toronto beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-1 last night to gather in five of a possible eight points in Buffalo this season.
The Leafs survived a lack of discipline in the first two periods, received some strong goaltending from Vesa Toskala, timely shot blocking and excellent work from their three young centres, Alexander Steen, Matt Stajan and Dominic Moore, in the absence of their captain, Mats Sundin.
The Toronto victory, before a capacity crowd of 18,690, kept the Leafs' faint playoff hopes alive for another day and could set up an interesting home-and-home series with the Boston Bruins on Tuesday and Thursday.
Leafs winger Jason Blake fires a shot at Ryan Miller in the Buffalo net. (Gary Wiepert/Reuters)
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- Maxim Afinogenov
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The 12th-place Leafs are five points behind the idle Bruins, who tumbled into the eighth and final playoff spot after being passed by the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers were 4-3 winners in a shootout at home against the New York Rangers last night.
Because the Washington Capitals scored a 5-3 come-from-behind victory over the Atlanta Thrashers, the Capitals moved past the Sabres into ninth spot, only one point behind the Bruins.
"You want to stay in the race long enough to make those two games [against the Bruins] mean something," Toronto coach Paul Maurice said.
The Leafs visit the Ottawa Senators tonight, while the Bruins drop in on the Montreal Canadiens to play a team the Beantowners have struggled against this season.
The Leafs will likely have speedy forward Boyd Devereaux back in the lineup tonight after spending more than a month on the sidelines with a sprained ankle. Sundin is also a possibility after missing three games with a groin injury.
Sundin tested his groin more than he has since he suffered the setback 11 days ago. His practice included stops and starts as well as working on his one-timers.
The Leafs have won two of three games without their captain, thanks to the work of Stajan, Steen and Moore. All three played key roles in the Leafs' superior penalty killing last night, during which the Sabres enjoyed the man-advantage for 11 minutes 18 seconds, including 2:55 of 5-on-3 situations.
On the offensive side, Steen set up Jason Blake for the game's opening goal, which energized the horde of Leafs fans who made the short trip to Buffalo. Moore won a draw that enabled defenceman Anton Stralman to score his first NHL goal. Stajan, who had four of the Leafs' 20 blocked shots, poked in a rebound for the lone goal of the third period.
"There were a lot of blocked shots by our guys," said Toskala, who made 35 saves for his 31st victory of the season.
The Leafs went ahead 2-0 after the first period on a power-play goal from Darcy Tucker and 3-1 in the second period after Stralman drifted in his milestone goal from the just inside the blueline in his 43rd NHL game.
"I just tried to get it on net," he said. "It's about time. I've come close this year, hitting a crossbar and a post. You just have to keep shooting."
The Leafs cooled the Sabres' league-leading offence, which had scored 20 goals in a three-game winning streak, including a 6-2 victory over the Leafs at the Air Canada Centre a week ago. But the Sabres could not take advantage of all the power-play time they enjoyed in the first two periods, although Buffalo's Thomas Vanek scored with the man-advantage early in the second period.
"We definitely had our opportunities," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said.
"Toskala made a few good saves and then blocked a lot of shots on us. You put your best players out there and they've got to make plays. We had a couple of near misses, we had them down and out a couple of times and missed a couple. It was probably the difference in the game."
