In New York, the Rangers traded goals through two periods of play with the visiting Buffalo Sabres, on Sunday.
For the first time in a very long time, the Rangers owned everything about the third period, but the score.
Ryan Lindgren fixed that for the Rangers when he tipped in a pass from Mike Zibanejad with 0.7 seconds left on the clock for a 5-4 win to New York.
“Me and ‘Foxy’ are standing up kind of back towards the point and look up and see the clock and kind of realize with five seconds left there’s probably not going to be enough time for them to bring it all the way down, so you just keep sneaking in,” Lindgren said. “The puck got to Foxy, who kicked it out to Mika. Obviously, a great play by him. Just a great win.”
Alexandar Georgiev got the start for the Rangers, but was pulled in the second intermission after giving up four goals on jut 18 shots.
Igor Shesterkin iced the third period and made four saves in the Rangers win.
The Rangers improved to 11-4-3.
“We were sloppy in the second period, didn’t get off to a great start in the first period either, but it’s one of those games,” New York head coach Gerard Gallant said. “But we found a way to get two points at the end.”
Buffalo’s Rasmus Asplund and the Rangers’ Chris Kreider (power play) scored in the first period for a 1-1 tie after one.
“I think we bounced back good from last game (a 5-0 loss to the Calgary Flames on Thursday),” Asplund said. “This is a tough building to come in and play, and we showed up to play today. Of course it stings, what happened at the end there. But we’ve just got to keep learning and keep earning it.”
The Sabres dropped to 7-8-2.
“We definitely tightened up in the third period, squeezed our stick a little more,” Buffalo head coach Don Granato said. “But I didn’t feel we were bad. Again, I guess the word I keep using is hesitation. We need to be assertive. When we struggled in the third, we hesitated, maybe took a step back. … These situations that’s happened to us in the last few days, when you’re not getting what you want, you tend to be more hesitant, and we can’t have that happen.”
The middle frame was a festival of mistakes and giveaways and flops. It started with Vinnie Hinostroza taking the pick from the Rangers’ Jarred Tinordi in the offensive zone and beating Georgiev for a 2-1 lead to the Sabres.
Jacob Trouba and Kaapo Kakko replied with goals to give New York a 3-2 lead.
“We talked about getting more pucks to the net from the blue line,” Trouba said. “At the end of the day, you’ve got to get pucks there and that’s kind of how they all end up going in. … You’ve got to get bodies there and get traffic.”
Buffalo’s Tage Thompson scored less than a minute after Kakko put the Rangers ahead to make it, 3-3.
Rasmus Dahlin put the Sabres up 4-3, with a shot from long range just 15 seconds after the tying goal.
“A lot of fun for the people in the building, I’m sure,” Granato said. “And again, it’s momentum swings. You’re in somebody else’s building, the crowd is a big part of that four goals. … The noise and the atmosphere and emotion creates and adds to that. That’s something we have to manage, but I thought for the most part we showed marked improvement.”
The Rangers replied quickly, 15 seconds later, with a shot from the blue line by K’Andre Miller to get the even, 4-4, and send it to the third, tied.
Aaron Dell made 31 saves in the Buffalo loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.