In Buffalo, the Sabres tried to make it two wins in a row, but Mika Zibanejad scored with just 28 seconds left in extra time to spoil the dream in a 3-2 win for the New York Rangers on Thursday.
Mika Zibanejad scored the OT winner for the New York Rangers
An extra session was needed when Tage Thompson tied the game with less than four seconds on the clock.
“Well, listen, it’s a kick in the [butt] when you give up a goal with [four] seconds to go and play the way we did for the second and third period,” Rangers head coach David Quinn said. “But I thought we were able to pull ourselves together. You know, we got two points and, really, at the end of the day that’s what this is all about. We’re playing in the National Hockey League and we want to win hockey games, and we found a way to get two points tonight.”
Igor Shesterkin made 21 saves to get the win.
Rasmus Asplund gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead in the first period.
“It would have felt a lot better to get the win. [Tokarski] deserved that one big time,” Thompson said. “He played a great game, stood on his head, made some huge saves for us. It would have been nice to get him the win, but I think you’ve got to be proud of the way we battled back. I think we let our game slip a little bit in the second there, but I think the effort was there for the most part tonight.”
Colin Blackwell and Filip Chytil scored, for New York in regulation.
“We gave up the first goal, obviously, and then we changed the speed of the game,” Shesterkin said. “We started putting more pucks on their net. It was a little bit challenging not facing a lot of shots and the rink is pretty cold, so I was getting a little bit cold, but the guys did a great job to get the game rolling.”
Ryan Strome has an 11-game point streak for the Rangers.
“Honestly, don’t try to think about it too much,” Strome said. “I just try to go out there and make plays. Right now we have the puck a lot, which is fun. Even tonight we had so many chances for more goals. Things are clicking right now, so just try to make the play that I see in front of me.
“To be in that company is a nice honor, but this time of the year, even though it’s a cliche, just finding ways to get wins is important. We want to play meaningful games here down the stretch. I think we’ve worked really hard here to give ourselves a chance to do that. Obviously it feels good to be helping the team out at this time also.”
Dustin Tokarski made 44 saves in the loss.
“We battled a lot of fatigue tonight,” Sabres head coach Don Granato said. “It was obvious we had the great energy in the first and it looked like we just died from the energy standpoint in the second. We reverted back to a lot of hesitation, and that’s a real sign of fatigue. … Then you saw a little bit of it at the start of the third, missing the net on shots that were point-blank, so a lot of characteristics of that. I thought our guys elevated tremendously in the last few minutes to get that goal.”
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