Maple Leafs 4, Sabres 3
Mikhail Grabovski scored the go-ahead goal and Clarke MacArthur had a goal and two assists as the Toronto Maple Leafs kept their faint playoff hopes alive with a 4-3 victory over the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night.
Dion Phaneuf and Darryl Boyce also scored for Toronto (35-32-10), which pulled within five points of eighth-place Buffalo (38-29-9) in the Eastern Conference.
Rookie goaltender James Reimer turned aside 28 shots and held the Sabres off the board for the final 26-plus minutes after Buffalo had erased a pair of two-goal deficits.
Thomas Vanek, Jason Pominville and Rob Niedermayer scored goals and Ryan Miller made 31 saves for the Sabres, who had their three-game winning streak snapped.
After the Sabres had tied the score with goals by Pominville and Niedermayer in a 29-second span, Grabovski delivered the game-winner at 13:35 of the second period, poking a pass from Phil Kessel past Miller.
Phaneuf and Boyce staked the Leafs to a 2-0 lead, but Vanek scored with 12 seconds left in the opening period to cut the deficit in half.