Buffalo Sabres HC Lindy Ruff pinpoints key factor in loss to Maple Leafs

The Buffalo Sabres fell 6-3 to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday night at KeyBank Center, a game that saw two disallowed Sabres goals prove costly.

Coach Lindy Ruff pinpointed decision-making errors and failed puck clears as key factors in the loss.

"What hurt us was a bad decision on the first goal and just puck play on a couple of other ones just killed us…," Ruff said post game.

"Some of the bad decisions that we couldn't get people off the ice. If you look at a couple of goals, we couldn't get people off the ice.”

The Sabres would have added goals in both the first and third periods. But Alex Tuch's tally, which would have tied the game at 1-1, disallowed due to his double-minor high-sticking penalty earlier in the sequence.

Meanwhile, Owen Power's point shot, which would have made it 5-4 with under four minutes left, was waved off following a successful goalie interference challenge.

"I mean, we bounced right back, the line goes out and scores would have been the tying goal, it goes the other way a double minor. We've almost got the penalty killed and we had 3 failed clears that again, you know, when you don't get it down the ice, it's gonna kill you. "

The coach emphasized that the Sabres have struggled this season when forced to chase the game and take risks offensively to catch up. Once they fell behind by multiple goals, it became very difficult to mount a comeback. Their risk-taking left them exposed defensively.

JJ Peterka, Owen Power and Mattias Samuelsson scored for the Buffalo Sabres. Toronto received goals from Max Domi, Bobby McMann, Nicholas Robertson, Auston Matthews, Max Pacioretty and William Nylander.

Matt Murray made 24 saves for the Sabres. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen allowed four goals on 13 shots before being relieved by James Reimer, who stopped 14.

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Buffalo Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin on loss to Leafs

The Buffalo Sabres have lost 12 straight games and have an 11-18-4 record on the seaosn. Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin, who just returned from missing seven games due to injury, voiced his frustration after the loss.

"That's where we're at right now. We score five, but two get disallowed. But we can't hang our heads. We did this to ourselves. We’ve got to work," Dahlin said (per NHL.com).

Things won't get any easier for the struggling the Buffalo Sabres, as they next travel to Boston to take on the Bruins on Saturday night at TD Garden.