Toronto Maple Leafs forward Viktor Stalberg, centre, celebrates his goal with Tyler Bozak behind Buffalo Sabres forward Paul Gaustad during the first period of their NHL game in Toronto, April 1, 2010.MIKE CASSESE/Reuters
You could call it a game of many firsts.
For one, Toronto Maple Leafs rookie Brayden Irwin played his first NHL game. Defenceman Garnet Exelby, meanwhile, scored his first goal as a Leaf - his first tally in a mind-boggling 154 games.
More importantly, though, it was the Leafs' first win of the season against the Buffalo Sabres and Ryan Miller, a team and a goaltender that have traditionally owned Toronto and were a perfect 5-0 on the year coming into last night's 4-2 loss.
"It's about time we beat Buffalo," said Luke Schenn, who netted the winner on a knuckle puck midway through the third period that deflected off Sabres winger Raffi Torres's stick.
"It's great to beat that team," Exelby said. "We're sick of losing to them and something had to give."
That something was finally being able to squeak a few past Miller, who had allowed only eight goals in five games against Toronto this season and became a bit of a nemesis to the 29th-place Leafs.
Coach Ron Wilson joked afterward that the team's success came from its "secret weapons" - a reference to the four Leafs goal scorers who had combined for a total of 13 tallies prior to last night's explosion.
Leading the way in terms of unlikely heroes was Exelby, whose goal was announced at the Air Canada Centre as "his first as a Maple Leaf," despite the fact this was Game 78 on the schedule.
That tidbit earned him a bit of ribbing from his teammates.
"Everyone threw a couple digs at me," Exelby said, chuckling.
"That's a bit of a monkey off the back for sure," Schenn said. "I was laughing, too - he looked like he still knew how to celebrate."
As light-hearted as the Leafs room was after the game, Buffalo's was the opposite, given the fact they had frittered away an opportunity to essentially clinch the Northeast Division title. The Sabres remain well in front of the Ottawa Senators, but are mired in a dogfight for second in the Eastern Conference with five games to play.
Miller led the way in long faces after Toronto snapped his team's three-game winning streak.
"They played a more organized game than we did, that's for sure," Miller said. "We got ourselves in penalty trouble, we got ourselves in trouble in our own end, we got outshot. Terrible effort.
"It's imperative that we have good habits. It's a bad cycle to go into the playoffs like that. … I don't want to see any more of it."
It was hard to fault Miller on any of the three goals allowed, however, and he was definitely the busier of the two netminders on the night, given Toronto led the shot count 34-24.
For his part, Wilson was happy with the effort - specifically lauding Irwin and some of his other young guns for their determination in Buffalo's zone.
"The goals we scored were kind of the result of hard work," Wilson said. "Two of them essentially were screens. … You have to earn every goal - Ryan doesn't give you anything. You just have to show a lot of perseverance around the net, and fortunately we did."
Leafs rookie Viktor Stalberg opened the scoring midway through the first, taking a nice pass from new linemate (and off-ice housemate) Tyler Bozak and roofing a shot over Miller's glove hand for his third goal against the likely Vezina Trophy winner.
The Sabres clawed back to 1-1 a few minutes later on the power play on a goal by Derek Roy at the lip of the crease, but Exelby restored the lead early in the second.
That proved short-lived, however, as Steve Montador beat Jean-Sebastien Giguere with a long, high shot a minute and a half later.
After more than 20 minutes of scoreless play, Schenn's fifth goal of the year broke the deadlock. Checker Freddy Sjostrom capped the game's scoring with an empty netter - his third on the season - with 37 seconds to play.