Maple Leafs defeat Sabres, gain in Atlantic Division

BUFFALO -- The Toronto Maple Leafs moved closer to second place in the Atlantic Division with a 4-2 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Wednesday.

Auston Matthews had a goal and an assist to reach 200 NHL points for the Maple Leafs (44-25-5), who trail the idle Boston Bruins by four points. Garret Sparks made 22 saves.
"You never want to lose, and then obviously the little slump we've been in lately, it's frustrating for everybody," Matthews said. "You try to stay positive but it's toward the end of the season and you want to make sure your game's kind of peaking at this point, individually and as a team. Everybody was prepared tonight despite the back-to-back, everybody came out flying and we skated really well. It's a big two points for us."
WATCH: [All Maple Leafs vs. Sabres highlights]
Casey Mittelstadt and
Alexander Nylander
scored, and Carter Hutton made 42 saves for Buffalo (31-33-9), which hasn't won consecutive games since Dec. 11 and 13.
"I wish I could put it into words. It's obviously frustrating," Hutton said. "A lot of us wear it on our sleeve here. We put so much into this. … It's frustrating. You want to win."

The power play connected for the first time in seven games, with Mittelstadt scoring from a sharp angle along the goal line to give Buffalo a 1-0 lead at 15:04 of the first period.
The Maple Leafs outshot the Sabres 19-7 in the first, including a 13-2 advantage in the first 9:10.
"Carter Hutton bailed us out first and second period," Buffalo coach Phil Housley said. "We knew the magnitude of this game, the rivalry. We didn't execute early. We couldn't make a wall play. We didn't move our feet when we had the puck. We turned the puck over and then it came right back after us and we were chasing -- chasing a lot, killing a cycle. Then when we did have the puck we didn't manage it very well."
Matthews tied it 1-1 at 1:43 of the second when Andreas Johnsson's no-look backhand pass hit his skate and redirected into the net.
John Tavares took advantage of a favorable bounce to give Toronto a 2-1 lead. William Nylander's shot hit the crossbar, bounced off Jack Eichel to the left of the net and back towards Tavares alone in front at 18:32. Matthews had an assist for his 200th NHL point.
"I was pretty fortunate on that one. I've had really good opportunities the last two days and it's funny how that's the one you get rewarded with," Tavares said. "I heard it hit the crossbar and then I didn't know where it went, and I saw it just bouncing out of nowhere right in front of me."
Mitchell Marner extended the lead to 3-1 with a shot from the slot 22 seconds into the third period.

"Just sticking with it, staying patient and knowing the type of skillset we have throughout our lineup and the way we're getting to the net and doing those things we talked about, eventually we were going to get rewarded, and we did," Tavares said.
Nylander took a pass from Vladimir Sobotka in the high slot to bring the Sabres within 3-2 at 5:37.
Zach Hyman made it 4-2 with a backhand into the empty net at 19:27.

They said it

"Being around him every day you understand what makes him a special hockey player. His ability just to stay on the puck, track it down, when you think it's going the other way, his ability to strip guys, and obviously be able to hang onto it and protect it, use his size. So deceptive with either his shot or just finding the open man. He was a force for us tonight." -- Maple Leafs forward John Tavares on Auston Matthews
"Looking at tonight, I'm very, very disappointed in our game because it's a rivalry and we knew the magnitude of the game, and we didn't execute." -- Sabres coach Phil Housley

Need to know

Among the players to debut with the Maple Leafs, Matthews (204 games) is the third-fastest to get 200 points. (Charlie Conacher, 197 games; Syl Apps, 200 games). … The Maple Leafs swept the season series against the Sabres for the first time in history. … Tavares (81 points) and Marner (86) are the first Maple Leafs teammates to get 80 points in a season since Dave Andreychuk (99 points in 83 games) and Doug Gilmour (111 points in 83 games) in 1993-94. … Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin had an assist, giving him 39 points and move past Bobby Orr for the second-most points by an 18-year-old defenseman in NHL history, trailing only Housley (57).

What's next

Maple Leafs: Host the New York Rangers on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, CBC, SN1, SNO, MSG, NHL.TV)
Sabres: At the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; CITY, SNE, TVAS, MSG-B, NHL.TV)