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TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

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BUFFALO –The Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres have seen a lot of each other lately. Just 10 days after the Sabres dropped the Leafs in Buffalo, Toronto returned to the scene of the crime and left with a 5-2 victory on Thursday night. It was the third straight win for the Leafs – they host the Sabres twice more during the last two weeks of the season – moving them to 42-22-7, five points behind the second-place Boston Bruins in the Atlantic Division.

TAKEAWAYS

Start right, finish right

Coming off a 6-5 shootout win over the Dallas Stars on Wednesday at home, the Leafs emphasized the importance of getting their legs moving early prior to playing the second half of their back-to-back. They were able to jump out to an early 2-0 lead by doing exactly what the Sabres did so effectively in a 5-3 win over Toronto on March 5 – putting pucks on the net and establishing a presence in the offensive zone.  

Mitch Marner, skating with Leo Komarov and Nazem Kadri, played a big role in driving the Leafs up front, turning pucks over on the backcheck, moving seamlessly through the neutral zone and propelling his line’s offensive zone possession with a good forecheck. After a first period where the Leafs’ controlled play at 61 per cent possession with a 2-1 lead, the middle frame was once again a struggle for the Leafs while the Sabres dominated them in all three phases.

While Curtis McElhinney’s terrific play kept the Leafs in the lead, Connor Carrick offered some insurance with a point shot through traffic near the halfway point of the period; it was Carrick’s fourth goal of the season, and first since Jan. 20. Then it was Tyler Bozak’s turn to pile it on. He had put together a nice stretch of games recently and after a two-assist night against Dallas, which included scoring the shootout winner, Bozak tallied a backdoor power-play goal late in the frame to put the Leafs up 4-1.

That was the eighth goal scored by that first power-play unit in the Leafs’ last eight games. Buffalo responded with another power-play goal from Jason Pominville in the third, but wouldn’t come any closer to a comeback and Patrick Marleau added the empty-net dagger with 43 seconds left to seal a victory for the visitors.

Man on fire

James van Riemsdyk tallied a hat trick against Dallas on Wednesday and picked up right where he left on in the opening four minutes against Buffalo. His line once again established good offensive zone pressure and were cycling the puck well when he managed a five-hole strike from a tough side angle to put Toronto up 1-0. It was van Riemsdyk’s 30th goal of the season, marking the second time in his 10-year NHL career that he’s reached the milestone. He came achingly close last season with 29 goals over 82 games; he hit 30 in just 70 games this season.

His next goal came exactly three minutes later in the first period, a bar down strike from the hashmarks that set a new career-high for van Reimsdyk with 31 goals. He added an assist to his point haul before the end of the second period with a helper on Bozak’s marker, putting him at five goals and one assist in his previous five periods of play.

Van Riemsdyk has been a streaky scorer all season, putting together runs where he can’t miss juxtaposed with stretches of 10 or more games with only one or two goals. But when he’s on, van Riemsdyk is as powerful and potent with the puck on his stick as anyone on Toronto’s roster. With star centre Auston Matthews out with a shoulder injury for the eighth straight game, the contributions of the Leafs’ other forwards have been more critical than ever and van Riemsdyk is answering the bell.

Mac up to the task

The last time McElhinney saw playing time in consecutive games? The 2016-17 NHL season, not 2017-18, let alone on consecutive nights. But the backup, who has been a good soldier for the Leafs in taking on the unenviable task of only playing the second half of back-to-backs, was more than ready to step up with Frederik Andersen’s status uncertain after suffering an upper-body injury on Wednesday.

During the first period, the Leafs made things pretty easy on their netminder by controlling play and outshooting the Sabres 18-11. McElhinney’s only blemish in that frame was not being able to sweep a loose puck out from his crease that was eventually potted by Sam Reinhart on the power play. The second period was busier for McElhinney, who turned aside 18 of 19 Sabres shots but allowed a second on the power play to Jason Pominville. In between the two extra-man goals, McElhinney was on top of his game – he was in good position for most of the night, tracking well in traffic and sealing his posts as the Sabres tried to beat him from behind the net.

After the game, McElhinney said it was Buffalo’s pushback more than anything that the Leafs stopped – doing that gave them an edge in the second frame. But, overall, he was pleased with the support he got up front and with his own preparation in putting together two straight wins on consecutive nights. Thursday’s game marked the third time in 12 starts this season that McElhinney has faced at least 40 shots; he turned aside 38 of 40 from Buffalo.

Komarov suffers lower-body injury

The Leafs are already dealing with injuries to Matthews and Andersen, plus a lingering flu defenceman Nikita Zaitsev has been battling the last few days. So when Komarov collided with teammate William Nylander near the blueline in the second period and got his leg tangled up on the play, it was the last thing Toronto needed to see.

Nylander was cutting back and lost an edge when he skated into Komarov, falling into the veteran’s left leg and twisting it backwards at an awkward angle as he tumbled to the ice. Komarov was down for a few minutes before being helped off the ice, and then was bracing himself on a trainer as he went down the tunnel to the Leafs’ room. The 31-year-old Komarov has been one of the Leafs’ best penalty killers, averaging the fourth-most short-handed minutes per game and second-most among forwards (2:35). He’s also been as versatile as any winger for the Leafs all season, deployed in every situation from even-strength to power-play situations, penalty kill or 5-on-3.

Komarov, who finished the night with 8:11 of ice time, doesn’t have the flashy statistics (seven goals, 12 assists in 71 games), but his contributions run deeper inside and outside the dressing room than is immediately recognizable.

“I think he’s going to be fine…I just saw him a second ago walking around; he tells me he did good in all the tests,” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said after the game. “So I don’t know if that means missing a game or playing the next game.”

Bad blood boiling over

It’s been well established there’s no love lost between Kadri and Sabres defenceman Rasmus Ristolainen. After dropping the gloves during the Leafs’ visit to Buffalo earlier this month, their jawing in the penalty box over how many more times their teams will face each other before the end of the season went viral.

Before Thursday’s game, both players acknowledged they expected to exchange a few more pleasantries before it was all said and done, and by the second period the two were mixing it up once again. They were chirping at each other early on, but it wasn’t until Kadri was coming out of the box after serving a hooking penalty in the second period that things escalated a notch. When he emerged, the 6-foot Kadri went barrelling towards the 6-foot-4 Ristolainen near the Sabres’ bench, where he delivered a hit to the back that Ristolainen sold hard as a cross-check to put Kadri back in the box before he’d even made it to the Leafs bench.

On the ensuing power play, it was Ristolainen’s point blast that was perfectly re-directed by Pominville to give Buffalo its second man-advantage goal of the night. As Buffalo chased Toronto looking to close the gap in the third period, there wasn’t much more opportunity for the two to interact. But with two more games still to play between these divisional rivals over Toronto’s last 11 games, Kadri and Ristolainen stand to have plenty of feisty moments ahead of them.

Next game

The Leafs head home for a meeting with the Montreal Canadiens, their longtime archrivals, on Saturday night. ​