John Tavares is one goal away from 500 in his National Hockey League career.

The Maple Leafs centre scored at 1:28 of overtime on Saturday, giving Toronto a 4-3 win against the Buffalo Sabres at Scotiabank Arena.

Tavares, in alone, beat goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen on the short side for his 499th NHL goal. That ended the Leafs’ three-game losing streak.

Leafs leading scorer William Nylander (undisclosed injury) was scratched.

Dakota Joshua tied the game 3-3 at 13:10 of the third, six minutes after Buffalo’s Tage Thompson, on a power play, scored his second of the night.

For the first time since April 4, 2022, the Leafs didn’t have Nylander for a regular-season game. He departed the loss in Buffalo on Friday, but took the warmup on Saturday. The scratch ended a regular-season streak of

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