Sabres dump Maple Leafs 5-3
Sam Reinhart, Ryan O'Reilly, Johan Larsson and Jason Pominville each had a goal and an assist Monday night while Chad Johnson made 38 saves as the Buffalo Sabres dumped the struggling Toronto Maple Leafs 5-3 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo.
In the first of four meetings between division rivals in the season's last five weeks, Buffalo scored two goals before the game was four minutes old.
Reinhart bagged his 16th at 1:53, 30 seconds after Connor Carrick high-sticked Jordan Nolan to give the Sabres the man advantage. Reinhart got his stick on Rasmus Ristolainen's point blast, and Toronto goalie Frederik Andersen had no chance.
Pominville made it 2-0 at 3:43 with his 11th goal off another deflection. Ristolainen ripped a slapper from the left point and Pominville got position in the high slot. His tip struck Nazem Kadri's skate and slipped by Andersen.
Leo Komarov brought the Maple Leafs even with an unexpected display of offense. After going 13 games without a goal, the one-time All-Star bagged two goals in an 11-minute span bridging the periods.
Komarov pounced on the rebound of William Nylander's shot during a power play and roofed a wrister over the stick side of Johnson at 19:52 of the first period to make it 2-1. Komarov then finished a pretty 3-on-2 rush by cashing in Matt Martin's feed for his seventh goal at 10:49 of the second period.
But Buffalo regained the lead for good at 13:30 on Zemgus Girgensons' seventh goal. Reinhart tried a centering pass for Marco Scandella at the left post, but the puck hit Girgensons' skate, caroming off the post and into the net.
Another fortuitous bounce set up O'Reilly's 19th goal at 15:35. Ron Hainsey's clearing attempt around the net hit referee Kendrick Nicholson and bounced to O'Reilly in the right circle. He wired a wrister by Andersen.
Larsson made it 5-2 at 9:55 of the third period with his fourth goal, while Mitchell Marner bagged his 18th at 17:57.
Andersen stopped 19 shots in Toronto's fourth straight defeat.
-- Field Level Media
