Ottawa regained the lead, 2-1, with 5:52 left in the first and maintained that lead after Batherson swatted a rebound of Dylan Cozens’ shot past Tarasov from the slot for his 21 st goal.

In 2022-23, when the Sabres missed the playoffs by a point, Tage Thompson had 47 goals, Alex Tuch had 36, Skinner 35, Dylan Cozens 31 and Victor Olofsson 28. All those numbers dropped last season.

Tim Stutzle and Brady Tkachuk each had a goal and two assists and defenseman Thomas Chabot and Dylan Cozens also scored for the Senators. Anthony Stolarz stopped 15 of 17 shots for the Maple Leafs ...