Maple Leafs top Sabres on Tavares’ OT goal

“I was toward the end of my shift, so I wanted to be sure with it and had some room to get some good wood on it and was able to kind of time it right,” Tavares said. “I’m happy I was able to pick the corner there.”

The Maple Leafs are 4-0-1 in their last five games.

“I thought we were inconsistent. We had some really good moments. The start of the second and third were really good for us, but not where we want to be and what we think we’re capable of,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We have to give some credit to Buffalo, they did a really good job in both games against us (6-4 loss on Friday), making it harder on us. That’s the next phase for us is to find a way to play the way we want to and are capable of when the other team has a good plan and is making it difficult on us.”

Frederik Andersen made 29 saves to get the win.

The extra session was needed when Rasmus Ristolainen scored the Sabres only goal early in the game to tie at 1-1.

“I think we played a pretty good three periods and maybe we should have earned the win, but that didn’t happen,” Ristolainen said. “It’s a little frustrating but we got a huge point on the road.”

“I was a little lucky, I think it hit his stick and deflected into his arm and up, but it was nice to get one on the power play for sure,” Nylander said. “I think they thought I was going to pass it backdoor, so I had some room there to go to the net.”

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Carter Hutton made 41 saves in the loss.

“It was a strong game from his side. I thought both goalies played very, very well,” Sabres coach Ralph Krueger said. “We needed to take more opportunities on the chances we had. I thought even though shot clock doesn’t show it, I thought we dominated in the chances here today 5-on-5 and took too long to get that first one.”