TORONTO — Jack Eichel scored his second goal of the night midway through the third period as the last-place Buffalo Sabres snapped the Toronto Maple Leafs’ club-record home winning streak at 13 games with a 3-2 victory on Monday.
Casey Nelson had the other goal for Buffalo (24-40-12), which got 39 saves from Chad Johnson to end a four-game slide. Zemgus Girgensons added two assists.
Patrick Marleau, with a goal and an assist, and Nazem Kadri replied for Toronto (45-24-7). Frederik Andersen made 24 stops for the Leafs, who were also looking to set a franchise record for victories in a season with 46.
Eichel snapped a 2-2 at 9:36 of the third when he swept down the left side, fought of Nikita Zaitsev and slipped a backhand through Andersen’s pads for his 24th goal of the season.
After the Leafs turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead late in the second, the Sabres tied the game at 7:56 of the third when Nelson scored on a shot from the point through traffic that went off Toronto defenceman Roman Polak in front.
The Leafs challenged for goalie interference, but the call on the ice stood after video review.
Nelson’s third goal of the season came after Toronto had a couple of chances to stretch its lead to 3-1 earlier in the period.
The Leafs pressed to keep their streak going, with James van Riemsdyk seeing his shot stopped by Johnson with under seven minutes to go.
The Leafs pressed late with an extra attacker, but the Sabres held on to hand Toronto its first loss on home ice since Jan. 22.
Down 1-0 after the visitors grabbed an early lead, the Leafs had a number of chances to get even before Kadri finally broke through with 2:29 remaining in the second.
Marleau dislodged the puck from Buffalo defenceman Marco Scandella behind the net on the forecheck before Mitch Marner fed a quick pass in front to Kadri, who beat Johnson to give him back-to-back 30-goal seasons.
Kadri, who scored 32 times in 2016-17, now has eight goals in the last six games at Air Canada Centre.
The Sabres were assessed a high-sticking penalty on the ensuing faceoff — the game’s first infraction of any kind — and Marleau banged home a loose puck in the crease on the ensuing power play at 18:42 after Auston Matthews took the initial shot.
Andersen, who was looking to set a new career high with his 36th win of the season, stretched to make a terrific pad save on Jordan Nolan on a 2-on-1 earlier in the period off a feed from Eichel to keep the Leafs down by one.
After the Leafs had two great early chances, including an Andreas Johnsson breakaway that Johnson stopped two minutes in, the Sabres turned the tide and grabbed the lead at 3:23 of the first.
Eichel pressured Matthews into a turnover in the corner in the Toronto zone before taking a feed from Girgensons and beating Andersen with a quick move to the forehand.
The goal seemed to stun the Leafs, who looked sloppy for a stretch before coming close a couple of times later in the period, including a Matthews snapshot that found iron and stayed out after he intercepted an errant Sabres pass off a neutral zone faceoff.
Notes: The Leafs won 45 games in 1998-99, 1999-00 and 2003-04, and secured 44 victories in both 1992-93 and 2002-03 — seasons that all came before the NHL instituted the shootout to break ties in 2005. Toronto is 7-2 in shootouts in 2017-18. … Andersen won 35 games in 2014-15 with Anaheim. … The Leafs host Florida on Wednesday.