Frederik Andersen was tested and the Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender did enough to hold his team to success.
Tavares scored his 10th objective of the season at 1:45 of overtime and chose up his 400th NHL assist while Andersen made 29 saves as the Maple Leafs beat the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday.
Andersen started in goal in the back half of a home-and-home series, breaking the trend from just recently fired head coach Mike Babcock of starting Andersen in the very first game of the sequence.
"It was a little different due to the fact that we didn't have a skate yesterday since of the early game," Andersen said of the modification. "I was able to skate a little today and obviously, we had more of an unwinded early morning."
VIEW "It was a little various because we didn't have a skate yesterday because of the early game," Andersen said of the modification. The Maple Leafs outshot the Sabres 11-8 in the opening duration. Andersen made a glove save off Connor Sheary at 11:50."That was fantastic, it kind of conserved me since that was my guy," Nylander said of Andersen's save on Sheary. Later in the period, Jeff Skinner had a possibility from the slot while Andersen lost control of his stick, but Andersen made the save at 18:31.