The Sabres douse the Maple Leafs

Buffalo's nine-goal blaze leaves Toronto dark

Twentieth against fourth

Six candles still burn after the quarterfinals, and one of them belongs to the Buffalo Sabres. Last season the Sabres finished 20th of 32. The Toronto Maple Leafs finished 4th. Both clubs arrived at KeyBank Center on December 21 having already ended two flames: the Leafs had taken out the Capitals and the Lightning, the Sabres the Senators and the Rangers. A loss here meant going dark one round short of the semifinals.

A first period swinging

Jordan Greenway snapped Buffalo ahead at 2:27. Auston Matthews answered alone with a wrister at 7:28, and Max Domi's power-play wrister at 12:39 put Toronto in front. That lead lasted 1:05. Owen Power, a defenseman, tied it on a backhand, and Jeff Skinner wristed in an Alex Tuch feed at 15:51 to hand the lead back to the Sabres.

Then the flood

Rasmus Dahlin's power-play wrister at 4:44 of the 2nd turned out to be the winner. Calle Jarnkrok answered just 0:58 later with a short-handed slapper, but that was as close as Toronto got. Tage Thompson scored at 8:22, and Kyle Okposo struck short-handed at 11:04. Ilya Samsonov stopped 14 of 19 before Martin Jones took over and stopped 11 of 15.

Jack Quinn, Skinner and Okposo again piled on three more in the 3rd. Devon Levi stopped 24 of 27, and the Leafs' flame was snuffed out.