Maple Leafs top Sabres, advance in Atlantic Division

BUFFALO --James van Riemsdyk had two goals and one assist to help the Toronto Maple Leafs move within five points of second place in the Atlantic Division with a 5-2 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Thursday.
Van Riemsdyk, who had a hat trick in a 6-5 shootout win against the Dallas Stars on Wednesday, scored 3:00 apart in the first period and assisted on Tyler Bozak's power-play goal in the second period. Curtis McElhinney made 38 saves in place of Frederik Andersen, out with an upper-body injury, to give the Maple Leafs (42-22-7) their third straight win and move five points behind the Boston Bruins.

"Van Riemsdyk]'s obviously been real hot here since the trade deadline," Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. "I don't know if it's you get to concentrate on hockey and not think about the other things, but he's been good for us. He's obviously got real good hands around the net and [been] an important player for us."
***[WATCH: [All Maple Leafs vs. Sabres highlights]*
Sam Reinhart and Jason Pominville each had a power-play goal, and Robin Lehner made 34 saves for the Sabres (22-36-12) who have lost three of four (1-2-1).
"Obviously, it looked like we were off five days," Sabres coach Phil Housley said. "I didn't think we were anticipating how fast they were going to come out. In saying that, first goal was unfortunate, second was missed coverage."

Van Riemsdyk gave Toronto a 1-0 lead at 3:39, and his second at 6:39 was his NHL career-high 31st of the season. It's the second time in his NHL career he's scored 30 (2013-14).
Reinhart made it 2-1 at 14:29 after he received a pass from Scott Wilson at the goal mouth for his 18th goal.
"It was a tale of two games," Housley said. "Last game we play them here (a 5-3 Sabres win March 5), same thing happened; we got that two-goal lead. It was just a reversal tonight."
Connor Carrick gave Toronto a 3-1 lead at 6:22 of the second period on a shot from the point through a crowd. It was his fourth goal.
Bozak made it 4-1 at 14:10 with his 11th goal. It was Toronto's sixth straight power-play goal over the past four games.

"I think our power play has been doing a really good job all year getting pucks to the net, and obviously with [Van Riemsdyk] down there, being able to score and make plays like that, he's a huge reason, so I just try to go to the back door and he made a great play to me," Bozak said.
Pominville cut the lead to 4-2 when he deflected a shot by Rasmus Ristolainen at 19:01.
Patrick Marleau scored into an empty net at 19:16 of the third period to make it 5-2.
Maple Leafs forward Leo Komarov left in the second period after colliding with teammate William Nylander.
"I think he's going to be fine," Babcock said. "Obviously lower-body injury there. I just saw him a second ago walking around, tells me he did good in all the tests. I don't know if that means missing the game or playing the next game."

Goal of the game

Van Riemsdyk's goal at 6:39 of the first period.

Save of the game

McElhinney's blocker save against Wilson at 18:08 of the first period.

Highlight of the game

Bozak's goal at 14:10 of the second period.

They said it

"I thought [McElhinney] was real solid but I thought he was solid throughout the whole game. He's been like that all year. I think Mac feels real good about himself, he knows when he goes in there he's going to play well. He's got himself on a good roll. Obviously with [Andersen] out, we'll know more tomorrow." -- Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock
"You could tell that we'd been off for a few days. We didn't get the start, got behind the eight ball and were kind of chasing it after, never found a way to get back into it. Bottom line, we've got to have a better start and we've got to find a way to score 5-on-5, which we didn't do tonight." -- Sabres forward Jason Pominville

Need to know

McElhinney's win was the 60th of his NHL career. … Marleau had two points to give him 1,122 in his NHL career and pass Darryl Sittler for 58th place on the all-time list. He also played in his 1,564th NHL game to tie Nicklas Lidstrom for 11th place all-time. … The Sabres are 19-4-1 in their past 24 home games against the Maple Leafs.

What's next

Maple Leafs: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, CBC, SN, TVAS, NHL.TV)
Sabres: Host the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; NHLN, MSG-B, WGN, NHL.TV)