NHL: No Matthews, no Marner, no goals as Leafs lose to Sabres

Matt Moulson scored the only goal in a shootout as the Buffalo Sabres defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 1-0 in pre-season play at the Meridian Centre.

Moulson was Buffalo's fourth shooter and the eighth overall. Anders Nilsson earned the shutout, stopping everything his way through regulation and overtime and all four Toronto shooters in the shootout.

The 5,000-seat arena is home to the Ontario Hockey League's Niagara Ice Dogs, and geographically not quite midway between Toronto and Buffalo.

There was no Auston Matthews on the ice. Toronto's first-overall draft pick is expected to make his debut on Friday in Buffalo. And there was no Mitch Marner, last year's fourth-overall pick who played in Halifax on Monday in the first pre-season game. He is also expected to play in Buffalo.

Buffalo's Jack Eichel, last year's second-overall pick behind Connor McDavid, also did not dress.

The feature matchup in St. Catharines, Ont., was between brothers William (2014, eighth overall) and Alex Nylander (2016, eighth overall), who had never played each other until Thursday. Neither got on the scoresheet.

Hoffman scores 2 for Senators

Mike Hoffman scored twice, including in overtime, as the Ottawa Senators defeated the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 in the third pre-season game for both teams on Thursday night.

Hoffman scored 19 seconds into the extra period, going top shelf on Mike Condon after bad giveaway by Alex Galchenyuk deep in his own zone.

Matt Puempel and Bobby Ryan scored for Ottawa (2-0-1) in regulation time.

Chris Driedger stopped 18-of-21 shots before being replaced midway through the second period by Matt O'Connor, who stopped all 19 shots he faced in relief.

Michael McCarron, Brendan Gallagher and Zach Redmond scored for Montreal (1-1-1) while Condon made 16 saves on 20 shots.

Max Pacioretty made his first appearance of the year for Montreal after missing the team's first two pre-season games. The Habs captain finished the night with one assist and six shots on goal.

Perreault helps Winnipeg to 1st pre-season win

Mathieu Perreault scored on the power play and added an assist to help the Winnipeg Jets defeat the Minnesota Wild 4-1 on Thursday for their first win of the pre-season.

Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers and Andrew Copp also scored for Winnipeg (1-1-0), while defenceman Josh Morrissey and forward Chase De Leo each had a pair of assists.

Perreault slowly left the game midway through the third period after a hit by Wild winger Kurtis Gabriel put him to the ice.

Connor Hellebuyck made 27 saves for Winnipeg.

Minnesota outshot the Jets 11-5 in the scoreless first period and then quickly got on the board in the second.

Connor, Winnipeg's first-round pick (17th overall) in the 2015 NHL draft, gave the home team the lead at 15:00, firing in a backhand pass from veteran defenceman Mark Stuart.​

Some key Jets are expected to play Friday in a home game against the Edmonton Oilers. Those include players who were at the World Cup — Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele, Dustin Byfuglien, Ondrej Pavelec and rookie Patrik Laine.