Quinn's Big Night Outlasts a Marchenko Hat Trick
The posts in this game mostly hurt Buffalo, not Toronto, and the Sabres still won 5-4 in overtime. Jack Quinn had a monster night with two goals and two assists, and it could have been bigger: he rang the post twice on chances worth 1.11 expected goals (how many goals chances like those usually produce). Three of the game's four posts belonged to Buffalo. Toronto's Easton Cowan hit the other one.
Toronto had slightly the better chances overall, 3.6 expected goals to 3.43, though Buffalo took more shots, 34 to 30. Kirill Marchenko scored all three of the Leafs' even-strength-and-beyond answers with a hat trick, and John Tavares added two assists.
Buffalo's first line did the heavy lifting. Zach Benson and Noah Ostlund each had two assists alongside Quinn, and defencemen Mattias Samuelsson and Owen Power chipped in goals. In net, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 26 saves on 30 shots, while Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 29 of 34. A coin-flip game on chances, and Buffalo found one more finish.
