James van Riemsdyk scores twice, sets personal NHL high for goals in a season.
By Joe Yerdon / NHL.com Correspondent
BUFFALO, N.Y. — James van Riemsdyk had two goals and one assist to help the Toronto Maple Leafs move within five points of second place in the Atlantic Division with a 5-2 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Thursday.
Van Riemsdyk, who had a hat trick in a 6-5 shootout win against the Dallas Stars on Wednesday, scored two goals 3:00 apart in the first period and assisted on Tyler Bozak’s power-play goal in the second period. Curtis McElhinney made 38 saves in place of Frederik Andersen, out with an upper-body injury, to give the Maple Leafs (42-22-7) their third straight win.
Sam Reinhart and Jason Pominville each had a power-play goal, and Robin Lehner made 34 saves for the Sabres (22-36-12) who have lost three of the past four (1-2-1).
Van Riemsdyk gave Toronto a 1-0 lead at 3:39, and his second at 6:39 was his NHL career-high 31st of the season. It’s the second time in his NHL career he’s scored 30 (2013-14).
Reinhart made it 2-1 at 14:29 after he received a pass from Scott Wilson at the goal mouth for his 18th goal.
Connor Carrick gave Toronto a 3-1 lead at 6:22 of the second period on a shot from the point through a crowd. It was his fourth goal.
Bozak made it 4-1 at 14:10 with his 11th goal. It was Toronto’s sixth straight power-play goal over the past four games.
Pominville cut the lead to 4-2 when he deflected a shot by Rasmus Ristolainen at 19:01.
Patrick Marleau scored an empty-net goal at 19:16 of the third period that made it 5-2. Marleau had two points to give him 1,122 in his NHL career and pass Darryl Sittler for 58th place on the all-time list.
Marleau also played in his 1,564th NHL game to pass Nicklas Lidstrom for 11th place all-time.
Maple Leafs forward Leo Komarov left in the second period after colliding with teammate William Nylander.
*NOTES — Evan Rodrigues returned the lineup for the Sabres after missing the past five games with an upper-body injury. He picked up 2 assists in his first game back. He had scored goals in back-to-back games prior to being injured and has nine points (4+5) in his last 11 games overall. The increase in production, Phil Housley said, had to do with an increase in shots.
“You can see when he does shoot the puck, he gets results,” the Sabres coach said. “I wish he would do it more often, especially on the power play, getting pucks to the net. I just like Evan’s game, he’s just played a good two-way, solid game for us.”