At The Final Horn | Sabres shut down Maple Leafs in Power's NHL debut

The Buffalo Sabres made sure Owen Power's NHL debut would be filled with nothing but positives.
Playing in front of dozens of family members and friends, the first-overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, a native of Mississauga, Ontario, skated 19:50 in Buffalo's 5-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday at Scotiabank Arena.
Kyle Okposo, Tage Thompson, Jeff Skinner, Rasmus Dahlin and Rasmus Asplund all scored for Buffalo. Alex Tuch and Victor Olofsson both recorded a pair of primary assists. Craig Anderson made 24 saves.
Timothy Liljegren and Alexander Kerfoot scored for Toronto while Erik Kallgren stopped 23 shots.
Buffalo's power play went 2-for-4. The penalty kill finished a perfect 5-for-5. .

How it happened

Okposo scored with one second remaining on a power-play opportunity at the 7:25 mark of the opening period when he wristed in a cross-ice feed from Olofsson.
Toronto tied the game early in the second period when Liljegren potted a rebound off the end boards and then off the pads of Anderson at the 2:09 mark of the middle frame.

Thompson scored Buffalo's second power-play goal of the game 9:11 into the second when he kicked a pass from Tuch up to his stick and beat Kallgren with a quick shot from the slot.

Skinner put Buffalo ahead 3-1 when Tuch found Skinner in the slot for his 31st goal of the year 4:09 into the third period.

Dahlin added another when Olofsson sent the puck over to the defenseman 1:34 later for a one-timer that beat Kallgren.
Toronto got one back when Kerfoot's shot trickled in at 8:53 of the third. The goal was confirmed after video review.

Asplund put home an empty-net goal to seal the victory with 2:18 left.

Roll the highlight film

Here's Power's rookie lap:

Worthy of a mention

With an assist on Okposo's goal, Dahlin set a new career-high with 45 points. He then set another career-high with his 10th goal of the season in the third period for 46 points.

Coming up

Power is set to make his home debut on Thursday against the St. Louis Blues. Tickets are on sale.
Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. on MSG and WGR 550 with pregame coverage starting at 6:30 on MSG.