Sabres score 9, surge past Maple Leafs

BUFFALO -- Jeff Skinner had two goals and an assist in his return from injury for the Buffalo Sabres in a 9-3 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at KeyBank Center on Thursday.

Skinner missed three games with an upper-body injury sustained Dec. 13 against the Colorado Avalanche.

Alex Tuch had four assists, Kyle Okposo scored twice and Tage Thompson had a goal and two assists for the Sabres (14-17-3), who won for the first time in three games. Devon Levi made 24 saves.

“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.”

The Sabres scored nine goals after allowing nine in losing their previous game to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday. It’s the first time that has happened in the NHL in 40 years, when the Detroit Red Wings lost 9-5 to the Vancouver Canucks then won 9-2 against the Maple Leafs, Dec. 21-23, 1983.

“We took last game really personally, I think, on a bunch of different levels,” 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.”

Auston Matthews scored again for the Maple Leafs (16-8-6), who lost in regulation in consecutive games for only the second time this season. Matthews, who did not play in a 7-0 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday because of an illness, has 10 goals during a personal six-game goal streak.

“It’s hard to pinpoint one thing,” 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.”

Ilya Samsonov allowed five goals on 19 shots before he was replaced by Martin Jones (12 saves) in the second period. He’s allowed a combined 19 goals in his past three starts and has a 3.79 goals-against average and an .871 save percentage in 14 games this season.

“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.”

Jordan Greenway gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead at 2:27 of the first period with a shot from above the left circle that went into the far side of the net. Greenway missed the previous nine games with an upper-body injury sustained Dec. 2 against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Matthews tied it 1-1 at 7:28 with a spin-and-shoot from below the circle along the right wall that beat Levi five-hole.

Max Domi scored from high in the right circle on the power play to put Toronto ahead 2-1 at 12:39. 

Owen Power backhanded a rebound from in front to tie it 2-2 at 13:44.

Skinner made it 3-2 Sabres at 15:51 when he took a pass from Tuch low in the right circle and scored short side.

Dahlin connected nine seconds into a 5-on-3 power play for Buffalo from above the slot to push the lead to 4-2 at 4:44 of the second period.

Jarnkrok pulled Toronto to within 4-3 on a short-handed 2-on-1 at 5:42.

“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,” said Okposo, the Sabres captain. “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.”

Thompson scored far side from the top of the left circle to extend it to 5-3 at 8:22 and chase Samsonov, and Okposo intercepted a puck in the defensive zone for a short-handed breakaway that made it 6-3 at 11:04.

Jack Quinn added a tap-in on the back door, making it 7-3 at 11:08, Skinner finished off a passing play from the slot for an 8-3 lead at 12:23, and Okposo scored from the slot for the 9-3 final.

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

NOTES: The game marked the 14th time in NHL history that a team scored at least nine goals after allowing nine or more in their previous game.. … William Nylander assisted on Jarnkrok’s goal to extend his point streak to 10 games (three goals, 12 assists). He’s the sixth player in Maple Leafs history with at least three double-digit point streaks in their career. … Dahlin’s goal was the 55th of his NHL career, passing Doug Bodger and tying Alexei Zhitnik for fourth place among defensemen in Sabres history. … Zach Benson had two assists, becoming the third 18-year-old in Buffalo history with at least four multipoint games prior to his 25th NHL game, after Pierre Turgeon (eight) and Phil Housley (four). … Tuch was the first Sabres player with four assists in a game since Skinner on Dec. 7, 2022 against the Blue Jackets. … Buffalo scored a power-play, short-handed and even strength-goal in the same period for the first time since the first period at the Detroit Red Wings on Jan. 12, 2020.