TORONTO — John Tavares inched closer to history Saturday. And helped his team get back on track.

The veteran centre scored the 499th goal of his career in overtime in the Toronto Maple Leafs' 4-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres that snapped a three-game slide.

Tavares took a breakaway feed from Matthew Knies in the extra period and ripped his fifth of the season upstairs on Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.

"He put it in a good spot, really easy for me to corral it and lead the momentum that I had," said Tavares, whose club improved to 4-4-1 in 2025-26. "Able to take my time within and hit my spot. Great to see it go in and get back on the winning side of it."

Tavares recently became just the fourth player in NHL history to register 500 points with two franchises, joining Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messi

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