Live from the ACC: Sabres vs. Leafs

TORONTO -- The Sabres will look to parlay some of the momentum from Friday night's 7-1 win over Carolina into tonight's game against the Mats Sundin-less Laffs in the Air Canada Centre. OK, I realize I can't really pick on the Laffs since they're only three points behind Buffalo and are 7-2-1 in their last 10 games. But seriously now, I can't resist. Laffs it is!

Some early frustration for the Sabres this afternoon as old friend Marty Biron couldn't hold a lead in the final minute for the Flyers in Boston and the Bruins rallied to win in overtime, 3-2. Andrew Ference scored his first goal of the season with 26.4 seconds left to tie the game and Aaron Ward won it in OT so it's the dreaded three-point result. The Bruins now have 82 points and the Flyers have 80. Buffalo enters tonight's game at 77 and will stay ninth in the East no matter what happens tonight.

"You're going to sit around and watch games. You're going to curse at some and be happy with others," Lindy Ruff told us in his pregame media briefing today around 5:30. "You're going to be upset you see a three-point game but it is what it is. That's what the league is. At the end of the year, there will probably be only three or four teams below .500."

The biggest early question is whether Tim Connolly will play tonight. Ruff told us he still didn't know. The decision certainly isn't final but Connolly is on the ice for warmups so we'll see. More updates to come. It's Ryan Miller vs. Vesa Toskala in goal.

7 p.m. update: Connolly's warmup must not have gone well. He's a scratch for the third straight game.

---Mike Harrington

Third Period

12:31 left: You could feel it coming. With Daniel Paille in the box after a silly interference penalty in the offensive zone, Jiri Tlusty pots a rebound to pull the Leafs within 3-2.

10:14 left: The Sabres are holding on as the "Go Leafs Go" chants are filling the building. Toronto has a 24-13 advantage in shots and it's 6-1 in this period. Gotta hold on and get the two points. Especially the way the Philly-Boston game turned out.

8:24 left: Wow. Hecht to Gaustad to Pominville for a beautiful goal, the captain's 24th of the season. That makes it 4-2 and takes a huge amount of pressure off.

5:05 left: Paille tips home a Hecht feed to make it 5-2. That's his fourth goal in three games (18 for the season). A great way to make up for taking the bad penalty earlier in the period. Shots are 28-18 for the Leafs. Five goals on 18 shots. Not bad.

4:26 left: There's a buzz in the building. What's going on? Leafs coach Paul Maurice has pulled Toskala with his team down by three. Haven't seen that before.

2:15 left: Henrik Tallinder fires it nearly the length of the ice into the empty net for his first goal of the season to make it 6-2. Why not? Even if it's icing, the Sabres were up three anyway. Good for him. His first goal since Feb. 24, 2007 at Ottawa.

It's over: A big 6-2 win keeps the Sabres in the hunt. Here's the standings update: Boston has 82 points, Philly has 80 and Buffalo has 79. Big blow to the Laffs, who stay stuck at 74.

Second Period

16:58 left: How much confidence does Ruff have in his young defense? He just had Weber and Sekera killing the second half of Lydman's penalty with Roy and Paille. Sekera, by the way, played 7:47 in the first period. Only Tallinder (8:05) played more.

13:18 left: The Leafs are playing without Sundin and it was just announced that Nik Antropov, their second-leading scorer (26-26-52), is out for the game with a knee injury. Not much offense left on the ice to climb out of a two-goal hole.

3:46 left: Miller has only faced 17 shots thus far but he's been terrific. He just stoned Mark Bell from the edge of the crease on a chance created when Darcy Tucker wiped out Vanek in the corner.

0:00 left: It's still 3-1 after two for the Sabres. Shots are 18-12 for the Leafs, who have had the better of the play of late. Will be interesting to see how the Sabres' legs hold up in the third at the end of their second game in two nights.

By the way, they play lots of pretty good videos on the jumbotron during breaks in the action here and don't kill you with a ridiculous stream of ads -- take note, Sabres. But my advice to the folks in TO: TURN DOWN THE VOLUME. You shouldn't leave a hockey game with a headache. I'd love to have a decibel meter. Right from the pregame warmup, the pounding noise is nonstop.

First Period

15:00 left: The Leafs have all three shots so far but Daniel Paille had a near-miss in the first minute. The rundown of the lines looks the same as it did Friday. With Connolly unable to go, why change a winning combination? Gaustad started between Hecht and Pominville. Then came Paille-Roy-Bernier, Vanek-Kotalik-Afinogenov and Stafford-Mair-Kaleta. On defense, it's Lydman-Tallinder, Sekera-Weber and Pratt-Funk.

14:09 left: Patrick Kaleta did it again. He throws some snow at Toskala, the Leafs object and Kris Newbury gets a roughing penalty.

14:06 left: Thomas Vanek goes for interference. How many power plays has he negated lately? He has 56 penalty minutes for the season, tied for third among the team's forwards and way too many for a skill guy.

12:54 left: Just 24 seconds after Brian McCabe goes off for tripping, the Sabres take a 1-0 lead as Roy feeds Kotalik sneaking in from the point on a 4-on-3. The Sabres were using four forwards (Roy-Kotalik-Pominville-Bernier). It's Kotalik's 22nd of the season and 100th of his career.

7:09 left: The Sabres seem to have plenty of jump in their legs (especially Derek Roy) even though they're on the second half of back-to-back games. Kaleta and Mair are again causing trouble in the Toronto zone. And eventually, the Leafs are going to get burned by this string of lazy passes in their own end.

6:21 left: The Leafs tie it at 1-1. Miller makes a great save on Alex Steen on a 2-on-1 but the Sabres never clear the zone and Ian White's floater from the right point gets past Miller, thanks to a Steen screen.

5:36 left: Great answer by the Gaustad line, which never let the puck out of the Leafs end on the next shift and puts Buffalo up, 2-1, as Hecht tips in a Pominville shot. Hecht's 19th.

4:59 left: The Jumbotron scans the crowd during a timeout and draws huge cheers when it finds Don Cherry and comedian Mike Myers, who was wearing a Leafs sweater.

2:19 left: Patrick Kaleta creates a goal by drilling Carlo Colaiacovo behind the net and prompting the Leafs defenseman to chase him around and forget about the puck. Drew Stafford didn't forget, drilling a neat snapshot past Toskala to make it 3-1.

0:00 left: The Sabres lead, 3-1, after one and that's 10 goals in their last four periods. The Leafs have a 10-7 edge in shots and will have a power play for the first 1:39 of the second period after Lydman went off for cross-checking.

Comments

[Don F]

*
"Vanek's reduced playing time I can understand; the guy just does not have the competitive fire for whatever reason"

That's a good call, Chad. I know it's not his forte, but Jeez, Vanek's next body check will be his first.

[Chad]

Surprised Max is getting less ice time. He's been almost a point/game player since his return from injury and one of the few guys who looked like he cared during the losing streak. Vanek's reduced playing time I can understand; the guy just does not have the competitive fire for whatever reason. However, not sure you need the Kotalik-Vanek-Afinogenov line out there when you're holding on to a 3rd period lead which is probably why we didn't see much of them tonight.

[Mike Harrington]

Strummerville: Lindy definitely shortened the bench tonight and even referred to the Mair line as the No. 2 line after the game. Vanek played just 9:01, Max played only 9:15. Roy, Gaustad, Pominville and Hecht all over 17 minutes with Roy at 21:03. Vanek-Max both played five shifts in the third period, but they were very-very short.

[strummerville]

Did Vanek get benched again?

[Kim]

Not sure it's a bad thing with no Connolly. There was some pretty good chemistry last night. Let's just hope it carries over to tonight's game. Regardless, it may be too little too late.