On Saturday night, the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Buffalo Sabres 3-0, with Auston Matthews scoring his NHL-leading 60th goal of the season and Ilya Samsonov making 34 saves for his third shutout of the season.
With 5:37 remaining, Matthews, alone near the left side of the crease, punched in a rebound of Conor Timmons’ shot into an open net to extend Toronto’s lead to 3-0. The goal tied his career high and matched the franchise record he established in 2021-22. Matthews became only the ninth player in NHL history to have multiple 60-goal seasons.
Toronto (42-22-9, 93 points) maintained a four-point lead over the Tampa Bay Lightning for third place in the Atlantic Division, with John Taveras and Nicholas Robertson scoring and Conor Timmins adding two assists. Both teams have nine games left in the regular season.
It was Samsonov’s 13th career shutout, his first since a 1-0 overtime victory over Winnipeg on January 24.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 19 saves for Buffalo (35-35-5, 75 points), which trails the Philadelphia Flyers by seven points for the Eastern Conference’s last wild card slot.
Toronto seized a 1-0 lead at 4:58 of the first period when Tavares fired a wrist shot from the high slot past Luukkonen’s blocker side and off the left post, his 24th goal of the season.
Buffalo, which was playing the second game of a back-to-back after defeating the visiting New Jersey Devils 5-2 on Friday, had its best scoring opportunity of the period a few minutes later, but JJ Peterka’s wrist shot caromed off the far post.
The Maple Leafs increased their advantage to 2-0 early in the second period when Robertson capped an odd-man rush with a wrist shot from the slot past Luukkonen’s blocker side for his 11th goal.
