Miller stops 34 shots to lead Sabres past Leafs

[January 22, 2013]  TORONTO, Ontario (AP) -- Ryan Miller stopped 34 shots to lead the Buffalo Sabres past the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 on Monday night.

Miller lost his shutout bid when Nazem Kadri scored on the power play with 1:42 remaining, his second goal of the season. Toronto's Joffrey Lupul appeared to tie it seconds later with goalie Ben Scrivens on the bench, but the goal was disallowed.

With Scrivens on the bench and Toronto on a late power play, Kadri was all alone to the side of Miller but couldn't get his stick on the bouncing puck in the dying seconds.

Cody Hodgson and Jason Pominville had the goals for Buffalo.

Miller improved to 28-14-0 in his career against Toronto and came in with a 2.44 goals-against average and .922 save percentage. He has more wins (28) against Toronto than any other team.

Miller was also solid in goal for Buffalo after a 27-save performance in the Sabres' 5-2 season-opening home win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday night.

Toronto outshot Buffalo 13-5 in the first, but it was the Sabres who had the period's lone goal as Hodgson opened the scoring at 8:51, deflecting Christian Ehrhoff's point shot past Scrivens for his second goal.

The Leafs had a prime chance to tie it when the Sabres took three straight minor penalties -- giving the home team an extended two-man advantage -- but the closest they came to scoring was captain Dion Phaneuf's slap shot going off the post.

Pominville put Buffalo ahead 2-0 at 4:51 of the second with his first goal of the season. The Sabres captain -- who had three assists Sunday night against Philadelphia -- took a nice setup pass from Thomas Vanek and finished the play off by firing a wrist shot through Scrivens' legs.

The assist was Vanek's sixth point of the season after registering two goals and three assists against Philadelphia.

NOTES -- Attendance at the Air Canada Centre was 19,475. ... Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield participated in the ceremonial opening faceoff from space. ... Toronto won the season series last year 3-2-1 and was 3-0-0 at home vs. Buffalo. ... The Leafs opened the season with the NHL's second-youngest roster with an average age of 27.1 years. Only Columbus (26.9 years) is younger. ... Saturday's road win in Montreal marked the third straight season Toronto opened the campaign on a winning note.

[Associated Press]

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