In Manhattan Sunday night, the New York Rangers were facing the Buffalo Sabres who unloaded nine goals on a hapless Ottawa Senators team Saturday night.
The Sabres might have done well to save some of those goals from Sunday when Henrik Lundqvist made 39 saves to backstop the Rangers to a 3-1 win.
The victory was the third straight for a Rangers squad playing well enough to not be doormats.
Henrik Lundqvist made 39 saves in win over Buffalo Sunday night – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Jimmy Vesey scored twice and Neal Pionk picked up his first goal of the season for the Rangers who improved to 6-7-1.
The Sabres were held scoreless on four power plays.
“The PK really stepped up,” Lundqvist said. “You could feel in the first period that they had a good power play, they were moving pucks so well side to side, creating chances, so we had to be on our toes. I think with each kill we got more and more confident.”
Pionk and Vesey scored goals 19 seconds apart in the middle frame’s first minute; Pionk scored at 41 seconds and Vesey struck at 1:00.
Conor Sheary scored the lone goal for the Sabres.
Buffalo dropped to 76-2 with the loss.
Most fans and Rangers players could be forgiven for being nervous over the final minutes of the game with a tenuous one-goal lead. The Rangers have given up late goals for ties and loses in their previous three games.
“I was curious to see how we were going to respond,” Lundqvist said. “We’ve been talking about it, and sometimes you’re going to have bad bounces. But at some point you’ve got to learn from your mistakes. I thought we played a really strong third period.”
For most of the season, those final minutes have been an adventure in the Rangers’ defensive zone.
“Sometimes the game is not very logical. I feel like we didn’t play that great the first 30 minutes or so, but we were up 2-0 in the second. But I think we earned this type of game by now after playing a lot of good games and not getting the points. But then in the third I think we played our best period and we lose that period 1-0. Tonight, I felt like we made some really strong plays at the right time and it paid off,” Lundqvist said after the win.
[WATCH: All Sabres vs. Rangers highlights]
Carter Hutton made 19 savesin the loss.
“Give credit to Lundqvist, he played outstanding tonight. That’s going to happen, but it’s just important that in those situations when it’s a tight hockey game you can’t take a shift off, you can’t let your guard down. They capitalized on some duplication and some soft coverage, so it’s a good lesson to be learned, especially in a tight game,” Sabres head coach Phil Housley said after the game.
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