At the Horn: Sabres 3 - Maple Leafs 5

The Buffalo Sabres scored three times in the third period Tuesday night, but they weren't able to close the gap against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
With a goal and an assist, Jack Eichel extended his NHL-best point streak to 17 games, but Buffalo fell 5-3 at Scotiabank Arena.
Eichel has 15 goals and 15 assists during the streak, which ties a pair of Dave Andreychuk streaks for the second-longest in franchise history. Eichel is now one game from tying Gilbert Perreault's franchise-best 18-game streak (10+21) set in the 1971-72 season.

Rasmus Dahlin and Kyle Okposo also scored for Buffalo. Victor Olofsson recorded two assists and Linus Ullmark made 28 saves.

What happened

The Maple Leafs controlled play early and got on the board first when Frederik Gauthier capitalized on a turnover to score.
Ullmark was called upon to make some big stops quite frequently, including a stop on a 2-on-0 with about 7:46 remaining in the first period.

Auston Matthews scored top shelf for his first of two goals to make it 2-1 at 4:47 of the second period. He hit the post on his next shift, and then added his second goal - and 21st of the season with 2:21 remaining in the period.
The Sabres got off to a great start in the third period. On a carry-over power play, Dahlin scored his second goal of the season when he fired a slap shot from the point that beat Frederik Andersen cleanly 1:29 into the final period.
Dmytro Timashov reclaimed Toronto's three-goal lead when he scored at the 4:58 mark.
And Eichel responded right away, with a top-corner snipe 6:30 into the third. Then with 5:19 remaining, Okposo knocked home a loose puck into an empty net to make it 4-3.
However, with Ullmark on the bench in favor of the extra attacker, the Maple Leafs iced the game when they scored shorthanded with 2:34 remaining. Ilya Mikheyev scored on the empty net to make it 5-3.

What it means

Buffalo is now 16-12-7 on the season and 6-9-4 on the road. They're 4-2-2 during the month of December, and saw their five-game point streak snapped.
Eichel has scored more goals against the Maple Leafs than against any other NHL opponent and he added to that total with his 13th goal in the rivalry.
He has now totaled 22 points (13+9) in 16 career games against Toronto, including 11 (6+5) in nine road games.
Eichel logged his 15th multi-point game of the season and his ninth of the point streak.
Olofsson has recorded 21 points (8+13) in his last 20 games, including two-point performances in five of the team's last eight games.

Roll the highlight film

Here's Eichel's goal that shattered Momma's cookie jar:

Up next

The Sabres will travel to Philadelphia, where they'll face the Flyers on Thursday. It'll be a 7 p.m. faceoff on MSG and WGR 550 with pregame coverage on MSG beginning at 6:30.