Tonight the Sabres played pretty sloppy but with a strong third period, they came back from a two goal deficit to beat the Leafs 5-4 in overtime up the QEW in Toronto.
The Leafs got the first goal of the game, just 2:24 into the game, with Mattias Samuelsson trying to clear the zone, Auston Matthews knocking it down and keeping it in the zone, then leading to an odd man rush of chaos where Pablo got it back and into the back of the net, and his Leafs go up 1-0. The Sabres tied it up 59 seconds later on the same thing, a failed clear, with Zach Benson grabbing the puck, tossing it from behind the net to Quinn who through it on net and beat Bob five hole to make it 1-1. My over looks nice early in this one. Both teams looked pretty sloppy through the first period, with a few good chances for each team. On the power play with 6:50 to go in the first, Kirill Marchenk-SHOW, one of the newest Leafs, went between the legs and right over UPL to take the lead back from tomorrow. That goal was fucking sick. Not the best period and the Leafs were the better team, but fun hockey I guess.
The Sabres tied it up after not looking great early in the second, but only 2:41 into the period, Jack Quinn got his second of the game on a nice move in transition, making it a 2-2 game. After the goal, the Sabres got a few nice chances in a row to take the lead, but with 8:47 left in the second, Johnny Tavares had a beautiful assist from his knees on the boards to Kirill Marchenko for his second of the game to make it a 3-2 game for Toronto. Another sloppy period for Buffalo defensively. The other Kirill the Thrill completed his natural hat trick with 3:09 to go in the second with the Sabres defense crumbling again, leaving him open right in front to go up 4-2. At least my over might be the only bright spot to this game, or for the rest of the season if the defense is going to be this bad. Could still get back in this game, but it hasn’t looked great.
With 9:55 left in the regulation, Buffalo got back within one with Jack Quinn setting up a great play to complete his Gordie Howe hat trick tonight and Dennis Gilbert put it in the net from the blue line. Cash the over! Right after the goal, the Sabres generated some more really good chances looking to tie it up, and with 7:44 left, in transition Buffalo tied it up on a solid pass from Tage to Mattias Samuelsson for a perfect shot, top shelf where mama hides the cookies, for a brand new 4-4 game. Onto overtime for the second divisional game in a row.
With 1:46 left in regulation, we got the OT win on the road with Owen Power completing the comeback, his second overtime game winner in two weeks on a quick shot.
FINAL: Sabres 5, Maple Leafs 4
https://www.instagram.com/reels/DeibOa-ODeJ
Blow Leafs Blow! I thought we played so well in the last ten minutes of regulation and into overtime to come back and win. Huge. The first 50 minutes of the game though felt like we were very sloppy and bad on the back end. But hey, we got the win, so I’ll take it.
Let’s Go Buffalo!
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