In Buffalo, Morgan Rielly lifted the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 5-4 win over the Sabres on Saturday night, when he scored with 12 seconds left on the regulation clock.
The Leafs’ Joseph Woll made his NHL debut, and made 23 save to get the win.
“From the moment I knew I was getting the start it was pretty special,” Woll said. “It’s something you dream of as a kid, and I’m just happy I was able to do it with the Leafs. And then for tonight, I think it was such a special team win. … I can’t say enough good things about this team, and it was pretty cool to see how much they had my back out there.”
Jeff Skinner hit for two goals for the Sabres, who trailed in the third period, 2-4, before rallying to tie the game ahead of Rielly’s heroics.
“We had time to make a play,” Buffalo coach Don Granato said of the winning goal. “We didn’t. You could go into a lot, but just there was time to make a play and we didn’t. There was a mistake. It happens.”
David Kampf and Ondrej Kase scored around Skinner’s first of the game for a 2-1 Maple Leafs lead.
“You can see his (Kase) confidence continue to grow and grow, in himself and comfortable within our system,” Tavares said. “He’s very crafty with the puck, obviously a really good shot, good release. He’s competing extremely hard … and contributing in a big way.”
Toronto’s Michael Bunting and John Tavares scored on either side of a Tage Thompson for Buffalo for a 4-2 advantage for the Leafs.
Skinner and Rasmus Dahlin hot for third period goals to seemingly force the game to an extra session.
“This is no surprise to me, and you guys have seen it,” Granato said of Skinner. “He works in practice. The details in his game right now, just the start of the year. He’s refocused on a foundation that is now starting to flourish, it’s starting to hit a rhythm, and some chemistry with others. … I’m really happy for him because of the underlying work that he hadn’t got rewarded for.”
Toronto improved to 10-5-1.
“I thought even though we gave up a couple of goals in the third there were some good things going on there,” Rielly said. “Obviously the power-play scoring in a big moment was important, and then obviously to end up with a win in a back-to-back is good for us.”
Buffalo dropped to 6-6-2.
Aaron Dell made 21 saves in the Sabres loss.
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