Sabres conclude road stretch with complete victory over Leafs

TORONTO - Kyle Okposo addressed the media Wednesday morning and insisted that the Sabres would need to be aggressive in order to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in their own building.
The Maple Leafs entered Wednesday averaging the third-most goals per game in the NHL. They possessed the league's leading goal scorer in Auston Matthews. On top of all that, they were set to play in front of a full-capacity crowd in Scotiabank Arena for the first time since December.
The Sabres sought to slow them down not by hunkering down, but by playing on their toes.

"We've talked to our team a lot about it," Sabres coach Don Granato said. "If we back off teams, whatever we think is going to be bad, it's going to get way worse."

The Sabres never did back off on Wednesday. What could have been a homecoming of sorts between the Maple Leafs and their fans instead concluded as one of the Sabres' best performances of the season, a 5-1 victory in which they never trailed.
The Sabres were playing the last of five straight road games. They had shown glimpses of their identity throughout that stretch - be it for whole games (at St. Louis) or pieces of them (at Dallas) - but had no wins to show for those efforts.
Okposo set the tone during the opening minute in Toronto, cutting across the net and nabbing a deflection for Buffalo's first shot of the game. Jacob Bryson opened the scoring with a power-play goal shortly thereafter, putting the Sabres on the board just 2:26 into the contest.
The Maple Leafs answered with their lone goal - scored by Rasmus Sandin - ahead of the first intermission. The Sabres dominated from that point on, tacking on goal after goal once Victor Olofsson put them ahead midway through the second period.
Five different Sabres scored goals: Bryson, Olofsson, Tage Thompson, Jeff Skinner, and Okposo. Eleven players finished with a point.
The full-team effort extended to the net, where Craig Anderson made 29 saves for his 298th career win. His night included a timely stop on a Pierre Engvall breakaway that would have tied the score, 2-2, less than a minute after Olofsson had put the Sabres ahead.

"I thought our guys, all four lines, all six defensemen, Andy, all played hard for each other," Granato said. "… The little things, the details were there and they mattered. They worked hard for the guys next to them. It's always nice to see the guys get rewarded.
"Our guys have worked really hard and I don't think they necessarily deserve to be on the string they were on, of not winning. But that's the way life is, it's the way this business is, and so tonight to see them work through it, have to play with a lead going to the third and then we didn't back off obviously in the third - it was probably our best period - was good to see."

Limiting the Leafs

The Maple Leafs had scored a combined 15 goals in their last two games entering Wednesday. They had not been held to one goal or fewer since Jan. 12. Only three teams had held them to less than two goals on their home ice all season.
The Sabres' defensive success started with their ability to largely neutralize the top line of Matthews, Michael Bunting, and Mitchell Marner. The trio was on the ice for the Maple Leafs' lone goal - which saw Bunting find Sandin with a pass across the net - but were otherwise held in check.
The Maple Leafs had outscored opponents 34-17 with a 64-percent share of high-danger attempts with the Matthews line on the ice at 5-on-5 entering Wednesday, according to the analytics website Natural Stat Trick.
High-danger chances were 1-0 in favor of the Sabres with the Matthews line on the ice Wednesday. Goals were 1-1. The defense pair of Bryson and Rasmus Dahlin were their most frequent matchup.
"His line is very dynamic, as you saw," Bryson said. "A couple of those shifts they had in our zone, they're all over us. But they're good players and it's tough to play against those guys. But I thought we did a pretty good job overall, kept them to low scoring chances."

Thompson heat check

Thompson added another goal to his breakout campaign during the second period, collecting the puck in the slot after Skinner poked it free and burying it behind goalie Petr Mrazek.

Thompson now has …
• Goals in three straight games.
• Nine goals in his last nine games dating back to Feb. 13, tied with Colorado's Gabriel Landeskog for the NHL lead during that span.
• Twenty-three goals in 51 games this season, putting him on pace to finish with 35.

Up next

The Sabres open a four-game homestand at KeyBank Center against the Minnesota Wild on Friday. Tickets are available here.
Coverage on MSG begins at 6:30 p.m. The puck drops at 7.