Matthews scores 60th, Maple Leafs blank Sabres

BUFFALO -- Auston Matthews scored his 60th goal of the season for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 3-0 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Saturday.

It's the second time in his NHL career that Matthews has reached the mark, having previously done so in 2021-22, when he scored 60 goals in 73 games. 

"It means a lot, obviously," he said. "It's as much of a team accomplishment in my opinion as an individual one. It's always a fun atmosphere here with all the blue and white in the stands so it's definitely pretty cool."

Ilya Samsonov made 34 saves for the Maple Leafs (42-22-9), who have won four of their past six games.  Toronto is third in the Atlantic Division, six points behind the Florida Panthers and four ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

"'Sammy' was fantastic," Toronto captain John Tavares said. "No doubt he was our best player. We defended hard and we competed. Obviously, it wasn't our best game. We didn't carry the play as much as we wanted. … But he led the way in how he competed and shut them down when they created some opportunities."

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 19 saves for the Sabres (35-35-5), who have lost five of eight. Buffalo is seven points behind the Philadelphia Flyers for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.

"I mean, it definitely gets frustrating after a while," Buffalo center Dylan Cozens said of not scoring. "You get tons of chances, and the goalie just stands on his head. Got to find a way to bury some of those. I've got to find a way to bury some of those, and our power play's (0-for-6) got to get a couple."

Tavares, playing in his 1,100th NHL game, gave Toronto a 1-0 lead at 4:58 of the first period. William Nylander sent a backhand centering pass inside the blue line to Tavares, who took it to the high slot for a wrist shot that beat Luukkonen glove side.

"I guess a good omen for me, considering the No. 11 (Tavares' uncle, former lacrosse player Jon Tavares) that wore that I came to watch lot as a kid," Tavares said. "So pretty cool to hit 1,100 in a game playing here. You don't think about it too much in the moment, but obviously I'm really fortunate to have a lot of great people around me, played with a lot of great players, coaches, teammates, so I just want to keep it going."

Nicholas Robertson made it 2-0 at 2:34 of the second period, scoring five-hole from the left hashmarks after taking a pass from Matthew Knies on the rush.

Matthews got to a loose puck on the doorstep to push it to 3-0 at 14:23 of the third period and become the first two-time 60-goal scorer since Pavel Bure in 1992-93 and 1993-94 with the Vancouver Canucks.

"Honestly, it's special, obviously," Matthews said. "I try to pride myself on playing a full 200-foot game. I know I can score. I just try to compete every night. I've been fortunate to play with some really great players and have the support of the team behind us so I just try to go out every day and compete.

The Sabres are 0-for-18 on the power play in their past seven games.

"It [stinks], honestly," Buffalo forward Alex Tuch said. "Guys have been on that pretty much the whole year. I got to be better. All five of us got to be better. There's no excuses. We just have to score when we have the opportunities and as many opportunities as we got in the last however many weeks or whatever. We got to bear down."

NOTES: Matthews is the ninth player in NHL history with two or more 60-goal seasons, joining Mike Bossy (five), Wayne Gretzky (five), Phil Esposito (four), Mario Lemieux (four), Brett Hull (three), Pavel Bure (two), Jari Kurri (two) and Steve Yzerman (two). … Tavares has 1,033 points (451 goals, 582 assists), passing Nicklas Backstrom (Washington Capitals) for the fifth-most points among all active players through their 1,100th game. …  Toronto defenseman TJ Brodie played in his 900th game. He had three blocked shots in 22:59 of ice time. … Tuch's seven-game point streak (one goal, nine assists) and JJ Peterka's four-game goal streak each ended.