Maple Leafs center John Tavares scores the winning goal in overtime and head coach Craig Berube is thrilled for his success

John Tavares scored the overtime winner for the Toronto Maple Leafs, steering his team to a 4-3 overtime victory over the Buffalo Sabres. Tavares notched the 499th goal of his career, capping off an excellent performance where he was arguably the team’s best player.

Three decades later, the 35-year-old Toronto Maple Leafs forward is two goals shy of 500 heading into Toronto’s game against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Friday (7 p.m. ET; HULU, ESPN+, SNO, TVAS).

Tavares scored the game winner in a 4-3 overtime victory over the Sabres on Saturday. He also added an assist.

“Looking forward to having him back.” Tavares said the Leafs were glued to their screens on Friday’s bus ride back from Buffalo watching the Toronto Blue Jays pick up an emphatic 11-4 victory in Game 1 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Leafs need their bold-faced players to start making more of an impact when it’s required. That’s captain Auston Matthews, who had an assist on Saturday, and William Nylander, who was a late scratch because of a lower-body injury. It was the first regular-season game that Nylander missed since April 2022, ending a 266-game run.

Anthony Cirelli scored a go-ahead power-play goal with 3:15 left, Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman recorded milestone points and the Tampa Bay Lightning were victorious for the first time on home ice,

Morgan Geekie hustled to a loose puck behind the net, collected it and slipped it inside the left post with 4.5 seconds left in the second period and the Boston Bruins snapped their six-game losing streak with a 3-2 victory over Colorado on Saturday,