• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Sabres rally to edge Leafs in shootout

Nov 7, 2010 - 7:10 AM Toronto, ON (Sports Network) - Tyler Ennis scored in the fifth round of the shootout after Jochen Hecht had netted the equalizer with 13.1 seconds left in regulation, as the Buffalo Sabres rallied for a 3-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Derek Roy also scored in regulation for Buffalo, which snapped a five-game slide. Jhonas Enroth, starting between the pipes while Ryan Miller sat with a lower body injury, made 23 saves for his first NHL win.

Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin had the goals for Toronto, which has lost five straight and eight of nine overall. The Leafs were coming off a shootout loss at Washington on Wednesday.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped 29 shots in the setback.

"I thought we controlled the game pretty well," Maple Leafs head coach Ron Wilson said. "I had one line producing offense, and that was it...we need more contributions from other people in a game like this, when we've got a team down on the mat and we didn't finish them off like we should have."

Toronto took a 2-1 lead into the third period and held the advantage into the final minute. But Buffalo removed Enroth for an extra attacker, and the move paid off. With the Sabres pressuring in the Maple Leafs' zone, Hecht spotted the puck near the right post and stuffed it past Giguere's pad.

"I got a piece of it, but not enough," Giguere said. "[Hecht] was trying to push the puck in, too, so it's what it is."

The goaltenders then held steady in overtime. Toronto had the first turn in the shootout, but Buffalo's Thomas Vanek got the initial goal, in the second round, on a snap shot. However, John Mitchell beat Enroth with a backhand move to open the third round.

Giguere then stopped Roy's multiple-deke move to keep Toronto alive, and turned aside Tim Connolly's wrister in the fourth round. But Ennis gave Buffalo the win when he shifted backhand-to-forehand to get around Giguere, who had skated out for an unsuccessful poke-check.

Grabovski's first goal of the season gave Toronto the lead in the final minute of the first period, and Kulemin's tally with under five minutes left in the second made it a 2-0 game. Roy got Buffalo on the board with 1:14 left in the middle period.

Game Notes

This was the first of six meetings between the Northeast Division rivals this season. Buffalo won five of six in each of the previous two seasons...Roy assisted on Hecht's goal, which was the first of his season...Enroth, a second-round pick in the 2006 draft, was making his third career start.