The Toronto Maple Leafs found themselves on familiar ground against the Buffalo Sabres on Monday. And that wasn't a good thing.

For the ninth straight time, the Leafs lost to their division rival, falling 3-2 in overtime to the Sabres at the Air Canada Centre.

Derek Roy was the OT hero, scoring at 3:35 of the extra session. He found himself all alone in front of the Toronto net after a centring pass from Jochen Hecht and deked out Leaf goaltender Jonas Gustavsson to score his ninth of the season.

"Montador made a great play and Hecht made a great pass," Roy said. "I just waited for a half-second for [Gustavsson] to make a move, and then I went upstairs."

The Leafs were close to breaking the long losing streak against their rivals, holding a 2-1 lead with less than half a period to go in the game.

But Hecht tied the game for the Sabres with seven minutes left, taking advantage of some sloppy defensive play in front of Gustavsson to put a backhander into the net for his fifth of the season.

The Sabres (21-10-3), who lead the Northwest Division, have now defeated the Leafs twice in less than a week and four times overall this season. Toronto lost for the third time in four games, while Buffalo is 6-1-1 in its last eight games.

The Leafs (13-16-8) got goals in the second from Viktor Stalberg and Ian White, who both capitalized on some strong crashes on Sabres goalie Ryan Miller's net.

Miller grinds out win

Miller, who made 34 saves in the Buffalo goal, came into the game leading the NHL with a .937 save percentage and 1.89 goals-against average, and is a lock to be the starting netminder for the United States during the Vancouver Olympics in February.

Toronto looked like it was trying to throw Miller, who had a 127:19 shutout streak going at the ACC until Stalberg's goal, off his game with physical play in front of his crease.

"It was a hard-fought game tonight," said Miller. "We came back and played a tight third period. Even though we only had a couple of chances, we made one count and we got to overtime."

Miller held the Leafs at bay when they tried to add to their lead in the second, and again when Toronto outshot the Sabres 12-6 in the third.

"Ryan's our rock out there; he made some huge saves and we finally got our act together in the third period," Roy said

Coming off the first shutout of his career on Saturday, Gustavsson made 27 saves in a losing cause. He was hung out to dry on the second and third Buffalo goals thanks to poor defensive puck control by the Leafs.

"The second goal, we turned the puck over, an elementary — I'll call it a pee-wee mistake," coach Ron Wilson told reporters afterwards. "And then the goal in overtime was also a pee-wee mistake. The two defencemen go into the corner and leave the front of the net, the weak-side forward is not paying attention, we have nobody there and it is an easy goal."

Gustavsson did let a weak one go by for the opening goal of the game, as Nathan Paetsch fired a puck from the left faceoff dot that somehow found its way through the unscreened goalie's legs.

Hecht, Roy, and Steve Montador all had two-point nights for the Sabres.

The Leafs visit the New York Islanders on Wednesday while Buffalo goes to Washington.

With files from The Associated Press