Sabres thrash Maple Leafs, 9-3 Skinner, Okposo hit for doubles in win

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In Buffalo, it was an odd Thursday night. The struggling Sabres hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Odd? Well, it was odd in that the Sabres posted three goals in each period and swamped the Maple Leafs, 9-3.

Jeff Skinner and Kyle Okposo each ht for doubles in the win.

The Sabres moved to 14-17-3, snapping a three-game skid in the process.

Devon Levi made 24 saves in the win.

Tage Thompson picked up a goal and three points in the Sabres win.

“Obviously ‘Tommer’ and ‘Tuchy’ I thought played great,” Skinner said. “I thought our [defensemen] played great. It was sort of one of those games where everyone was clicking, everyone was feeding off each other, so it’s nice to be a part of those ones.”

Buffalo’s Jordan Greenway scored at 2:27 of the opening stanza to give the Sabres a 1-0 lead.

Toronto dropped, with a thud, to 16-8-6, and held a 2-1 lead in the first period.

“It’s hard to pinpoint one thing,” the Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews said. “I think it was all just disappointing. I think embarrassment is probably the right word to use, just from start to finish, top to bottom. Not nearly good enough. Just a bad hockey game from our team tonight.”

Matthews tied it, 1-1, at 7:28, and Max Domi scored at 12:39 for a 2-1 lead.

Just over a minute later, Buffalo’s Owen Power hit for a backhanded goal and a 2-2 tie.

Skinner picked up the first of his double at 15:51 to send the game to the middle frame with the Sabres up, 3-2.

The Sabres scored nine second into a two-skater power play at 4:44 of the into the middle frame on a strike by Rasmus Dahlin for a 4-2 advantage.

The Maple Leafs got one back, before the game got away form them entirely, when Calle Jarnkrok scored at 5:42 to make it a 4-3 game to the Sabres.

“We can’t be fragile when we make a mistake, when we get scored on because you have to have an overriding sense that we are the good team, we are the better team,” Okposo said. “I think tonight that we had a little bit of that and we’re just going to keep building on that and keep compounding on that narrative.”

It was all Buffalo after that goal.

“We took last game really personally, I think, on a bunch of different levels,” the Sabres’ Alex Tuch said. “I thought we owed one to ourselves, we owed one to the coaching staff, because they come in and work really hard for us each and every day. And there might’ve been disconnect and there might’ve been a couple issues here and there with how we were playing and what our game plan was and what our mentality was, but that doesn’t leave this room. … It’s all of us together. We’re going to continue that mentality going forward.”

Thompson potted his marker at 8:22 for a 5-3 lead.

Okposo scored off a breakaway after a turnover for a shorthanded strike at 11:04 of the middle frame for a 6-3 lead..

The third period was an exercise in futility for the Maple Leafs who surrendered three more goals and had no offensive push back to offer.

Jack Quinn scored just past the midway point of the third for a 7-3 lead to Buffalo.

Skinner picked up his double at at 12:23 for an 8-3 advantage. ,

Okposo’s double came at 15:02 for the 9-3 final count.

“We won’t dissect it, but we won’t forget it,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said.

Ilya Samsonov got the started and lasted into the second period, he made 14 saves, and yielding five goals before getting the hook.

“It’s tough,” Samsonov said. “It’s tough right now. The last couple of games is so tough. I need to figure out everything in my head. That’s the first (thing). It’s not about technique, it’s not about, you know, it’s not about nothing. Just in the head. That’s what I’m seeing and I just need to figure [it] out.”

Martin Jones  made 12 saves in a mop up on aisle 9.