NHL Update - Toronto Maple Leafs wins 5-4 against the Buffalo Sabres
The Toronto Maple Leafs under the captaincy of Dion Phaneuf was up against the Buffalo Sabres in their home Air Canada Centre this Monday. The 53rd game of the preseason was one of the exciting matches awaited by many. Indeed, the match was a high scoring one that saw the home team Toronto Maple Leafs eventually emerge as the winner with a score of 5-4.
Though the starting of the first period was dominated by Toronto Maple Leafs in terms of possession and shots on goal, Buffalo Sabres had other things in mind. They waited till the fourth minute, and found a little space through which Derek Roy managed to slip in a pass to Drew Stafford who scored from 13 feet.
The game took a shift from there on for a few minutes as the Buffalo Sabres dominated the game. But it was Toronto Maple Leafs who scored in the sixth minute. Phil Kessel caught the Buffalo Sabres goalie with surprise with hard backhand 17 feet shot. All was levelled and this promised the upcoming 14 minutes to be enthralling.
Exchange of quick passes along with excellent play-making was observed. Both teams were content on taking the lead at end of the first period. Regularly coming up with goal attempts, neither of the teams were able to convert them into goals. However, in the fourteenth minute the Toronto Maple Leafs was able to dominate possession and thanks to some splendid play by Phil Kessel, they scored once again in the fifteenth minute. The shot was an excellent 14 feet snap, which the goalie had no chance of stopping.
At the end of the first period, the Buffalo Sabres managed to convert one of their eleven shots into goals, whereas the Toronto Maple Leafs managed to score twice out of the 14 goal-attempts. The period saw both teams going into the break with the score 2-1 in favour of the home team, Toronto Maple Leafs.
At the end of the first period, one of the experts said “though the score is in favour of the Leafs at the moment, but expect the Buffalo Sabres to give them a tough time as they would surely level the score.”
This is exactly what happened as the Buffalo Sabres came out with a mission and that was to score. They managed to do that quite impressively as they dominated the first four minutes. Showing their skill in every department from passing to shooting, they goaled through Nathan Gebre in the fourth minute.
Both teams again showed that they were strong contenders for the title this season as they displayed excellent passing, play-making and shooting abilities. Taking advantage of this, the Toronto Maple Leafs managed to get back into the lead. This was from a Kulemin shot from 39 feet. This put the Maple Leafs back in the lead at 3-2. The Buffalo Sabres immediately responded to this, coming up with two goal attempts. And they managed to score in the sixteenth minute through Leopold from 53 feet. This levelled the score at 3-3. The rest of the period didn’t see much happenings and ended with the score all tied up.
Michael Grier, captain of the Buffalo Sabres said “now that we have found our way back into the game, we will be looking to win it.”
This was not to be as the Toronto Maple Leafs managed to score twice during the course of the period and the Buffalo Sabres scored just once.
Though both teams came up with regular goal attempts, the Toronto Maple Leafs cemented a two-goal lead by scoring twice within two minutes. The first goal came in the tenth minute through Christian Hansen and second was done by a fabulous wrist-work by Kulemin from 33 feet. The score at the time was 5-3 in favour of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Buffalo Sabres won a penalty shoot as Nathan Gebre was hooked by Luke Schenn on a break way. Nathan managed to score, but this was how it ended without any more goals. The Toronto Maple Leafs ended up winning by 5-4 in front the nineteen thousand fans that had come in their support.
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