Best Buffalo Sabers win of December in the 2023/2024 season

Coming soon in the “Best Victory” series, it’s December. For their penultimate game before the Christmas break, the Buffalo Sabers hosted their bitter rival, the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Sabers were looking to bounce back in this game after an absolutely embarrassing home loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

After missing time due to injury, Jeff Skinner returned to the lineup. A little over two minutes later, Jordan Greenway got things started for Buffalo. Toronto responded with back-to-back goals from Auston Matthews and Max Domi before Owen Power tied the game at 2-2 shortly after Domi’s goal.

In what was a high-scoring first period, Skinner scored to give the Sabers the lead again, and they were up 3-2 heading into the first intermission. Three of the four goals scored in the second period came from the special teams of Buffalo and Toronto.

Rasmus Dahlin made it 4-2 on a Sabers power play before the Maple Leafs responded with a shorthanded goal. Tage Thompson gave Buffalo its two-goal lead before Kyle Okposo made it 6-3 for the Sabers with a short-handed goal of his own.

In the third period, it was all the Sabres. Jack Quinn scored his first goal of the season while Skinner and Okposo scored their second goals of the game en route to a 9-3 Buffalo victory. This was my favorite win for several reasons.

First of all, it’s always great to beat Toronto, especially at home. It’s nice to send Maple Leafs fans home with a win. But it was also a great response for the Sabers after that horrible effort in the previous game against Columbus two nights before.

This game was another result of Buffalo’s inconsistency as it was a story all year long.