BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Buffalo Sabres played the spoiler role to perfection Saturday night.

With thousands of Toronto fans invading KeyBank Center, Jack Eichel and the Sabres skated away with a 5-2 victory over their border rivals.

The victory snapped a three-game winning streak by the Maple Leafs, who are in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Eichel had two goals and an assist.

"There were a lot of Toronto people here, so nice to beat them," Eichel said. "I think there was a little bit of extra emotion in our game tonight, extra intensity. And it's good to see."

Ryan O'Reilly, Evander Kane and Dmitry Kulikov also scored for Buffalo (31-32-12). Robin Lehner made 32 saves.

"It was just fun," said Sabres forward Tyler Ennis, who had two assists. "There's a lot of energy in the rink right from the start, a lot of emotion and those are fun games. We haven't had a lot of those games in a while and we really felt that energy."

It was a disappointing setback for the Maple Leafs, who were 7-1-1 in their previous nine games. Toronto sits one point ahead of Boston for the third spot in the Atlantic Division.

"We weren't very good," Toronto coach Mike Babcock said. "For whatever reason they were quicker, they were better, they were hungrier. Obviously coming into the game I know we had more to play for than they did, but pride's a wonderful thing and if you get your group to dig in like they did tonight, they looked good and we didn't."

Connor Brown and Auston Matthews scored for Toronto.

"It's always tough to lose these games. We know the importance of every game here," Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly said. "We expect ourselves to be better than that. So now we're in a position where we have to bounce back."

Curtis McElhinney made 19 saves for Toronto after replacing Frederik Andersen in net. Andersen did not return to start the second period after suffering an upper-body injury. He made 14 saves in the first period.

The Maple Leafs were short on specifics regarding Andersen afterward.

"I can't really tell you because I don't know the answer," Babcock said. "Obviously the other team's doctor said he should come out of the game so once our doctors see him tomorrow then I'll have a better handle on what's going on."

O'Reilly opened the scoring 7:05 into the game following a fine feed by Tyler Ennis. Ennis spun in the offensive zone before firing a cross-ice pass to O'Reilly, who tapped the puck in for his 18th goal of the season.

Brown made it 1-1 at 9:30, burying a rebound after Leo Komarov's initial shot was stopped.

Kane quickly restored Buffalo's lead 15 seconds later on a rebound opportunity of his own. It was his 26th goal of the season.

The offense continued at a breakneck pace in the second period with the Sabres taking over. Matthews evened the score 2:22 into the second on a rebound from short range but once again the Sabres quickly answered.

Eichel picked up his first goal of the evening on a blast from the left circle 25 seconds later.

Kulikov made it 4-2 at 5:59 of the second with his second goal of the season. On the power play, Kulikov fired a hard shot from the point into the top corner of the net to give Buffalo a two-goal lead.

Eichel's second goal made it 5-2 with 6:48 remaining in the second. Eichel's shot through traffic from the right circle found room on the short side for his 23rd goal of the season.

"A good 60-minute effort," Eichel said. "A lot of guys played well. It's good to see some guys back healthy contributing."

NOTES: D Rasmus Ristolainen, D Cody Franson, D Taylor Fedun and LW Nicolas Deslauriers were scratched for the Sabres. Ristolainen served the first contest of a three-game suspension following his illegal hit to the head on Pittsburgh's Jake Guentzel in the first period of Tuesday's loss to the Penguins. Guentzel suffered a concussion on the play. ... C Eric Fehr, RW Nikita Soshnikov, LW Josh Leivo, D Roman Polak and D Martin Marincin were scratched for the Maple Leafs. ... This was the fourth of five meetings this season. The final encounter is April 3 in Buffalo.