The futility against the Buffalo Sabres, stretching back nearly two seasons, is finally over for Toronto.

Luke Schenn scored the winner at 8:30 of the third period as the Maple Leafs ended a 10 game-losing streak against the Sabres with a 4-2 win at the Air Canada Centre on Thursday night.

Schenn let a shot go from the right point that deflected off the stick of Raffi Torres and found the top corner over the shoulder of Ryan Miller.

Viktor Stalberg, Garnet Exelby and Fredrik Sjostrom scored for Toronto (29-26-13) as they stop a modest two game slide. Brayden Irwin played in his first NHL game after being signed out of the University of Vermont. The Leafs improve to 18-6-5 when scoring first.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere (9-14-7) turned aside 22 shots.

Derek Roy and Steve Montador scored for the Sabres (43-24-10), as they end a streak of three straight wins. Buffalo are second in the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of Pittsburgh.

Miller (39-17-8) stopped 31 shots. He has 25 lifetime wins against Toronto.

The Leafs took a 1-0 lead at 10:51 of the first period, just as the Sabres returned to full strength.

Tyler Bozak circled the Sabres net and found Stalberg in the slot and he let a wrist shot go that beat Miller high to the glove.

Buffalo tied the game on the power play under two minutes later when Roy jammed a rebound in from the top of the crease. Roy has four goals in his last four games.

Exelby put Toronto ahead at 4:52 of the second period when he put a rebound by a prone Miller.

Mikhail Grabovsky passed up a wide-open net when he tried to hit Phil Kessel at the left post but the pass bounced off the boards to Exelby and he found the open net for his first goal since Dec. 2007.

The Sabres tied the game 1:31 later when Montador ripped a wrist shot into the top-left corner.

Jason Pominville fumbled the puck in the face off circle but Montador crept in from right point and took the puck before letting the quick shot go.

With over six minutes left in the second Rickard Wallin picked an errant Tony Lydman pass at centre ice and raced in on Miller but the Sabres goalie made a right leg save.

The Leafs had a 30 second five-on-three with over three minutes left in the second period but could do nothing with it.

Irwin had a chance at his first NHL goal at 2:29 of the third period when he had a wide- open net to shoot at but Tyler Myers dove back and knocked the puck away with his stick.

The Leafs did take a 3-2 lead at 8:30 of the third period on Schenn’s goal from the right point.

Sjostrom finished the scoring into an empty net with 36 seconds left.