Ryan Miller stops 38 shots to lead Sabres to 3-0 victory over Maple Leafs

Miller stops 38 shots as Sabres blank Leafs 3-0

TORONTO — Ryan Miller stopped all 38 shots he faced Monday night to earn his third shutout of the season and lead the Buffalo Sabres to a 3-0 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Tim Kennedy, Henrik Tallinder and Jochen Hecht scored for Buffalo (15-7-2), which held Toronto scoreless for the first time this season. The Leafs fell to 6-12-7.

Starting with Tuesday’s game in Montreal, the Leafs embark on an extremely busy month with 16 games in December.

Toronto raced out to a fast start, building an 8-1 shot advantage, but couldn’t put one past Miller. He stopped a couple of chances from Phil Kessel before denying Niklas Hagman from in close late in the first period.

If that wasn’t enough for Miller to get into the head of his opponents, he probably did during the second period. He stopped Matt Stajan on a dangerous rush and then stood tall as Mikhail Grabovski made a nifty move in front before extending his right pad to stop Kessel.

Kennedy then opened the scoring at 13:07 of the second period by catching Jonas Gustavsson cheating a little. The Sabers forward saw his soft shot bank off Gustavsson’s skate and into the goal.

The Leafs still entered the third period with a chance to win the game, but thoughts of a comeback were quickly erased. Tallinder’s point shot beat Gustavsson just 20 seconds into the period and Hecht iced it with another long shot at 10:59. That was more than enough offence for Miller, who improved his record to 15-4-2.

Notes: Mike Komisarek returned to the Toronto lineup after missing nine games with a torn quadriceps. … Jeff Finger (lower body), Garnet Exelby and Rickard Wallin sat out for the Leafs. … Leafs defenceman Carl Gunnarsson suffered an upper-body injury in the second period and didn’t return. … Sabres forward Patrick Kaleta served the second game of his two-game suspension. … It was the second career goal for Kennedy, a Buffalo native. … Announced attendance was 19,110.