The New York Rangers let two separate leads slip away, but remained resilient in a 4-3 overtime win against the Buffalo Sabres.
NEW YORK, NY -- The New York Rangers certainly didn't make it easy on themselves tonight, but they stuck with it, and thanks to some heroics by Igor Shesterkin, Mika Zibanejad, and Chris Kreider, they found a way to win.
LINEUP:
Kreider-Zibanejad-Wheeler
Panarin-Trocheck-Lafreniere
Cuylle-Bonino-Brodzinski
Vesey-Goodrow-Pitlick
Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Trouba
Gustafsson-Schneider
Shesterkin
1ST PERIOD:
Like they have been all year long, the line of Vincent Trocheck, Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere established the offensive pressure for the Rangers early on in tonight's contest.
Lafreniere's first three steps were about as quick as I have seen them all year on this play.
The Rangers had some offensive buzz early.
Thanks to a strong cycle below the Sabres goal line, Jonny Brodzinski was able to get the puck from low-to-high for a Ryan Lindgren point shot that beat Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
Peter Laviolette wasn't happy with his team's juice last night, but they certainly had it at the start of tonight's game.
The Rangers would get the games first power play and Panarin made the Sabres pay.
Panarin picked his corner, going top-glove on Luukkonen.
Buffalo answered the Rangers power play goal just a minute and two seconds later.
Rasmus Dahlin was left open in the slot and beat Igor Shesterkin clean with a one-timer.
Dahlin's goal cut the Rangers lead to 2-1 before the end of the opening frame.
2ND PERIOD:
The Sabres would convert early in the second period, tying the game at 2-2 thanks to a great shot against the grain by Jack Quinn.
The Rangers had numbers back, but Quinn made a strong cut to the middle, causing the Rangers coverage to loosen up.
A few minutes later, the Rangers had a great rush up the ice thanks to a Lindgren bank pass. Blake Wheeler skated right into the bounce off the boards and pulled up for a trailing Chris Kreider. Kreider's shot left a rebound for Mika Zibanejad to pounce home out of mid-air, giving the Rangers a 3-2 lead.
We had some rough stuff in the 2nd period.
Will Cuylle threw a big hit on Ryan Johnson, leading to some retaliation by Erik Johnson, as he and Cuylle would throw hands.
There was a plethora of misconducts as a result.
In the spirit of Christmas, Erik Johnson was a very angry elf.
Laviolette felt that this was the turning point of the game. "I feel like sometimes we need that. I thought that was actually a turning point. I thought we were a little bit flat in the second period. You get in a fight, you start to turn it around, the building gets into it. It was awesome", Laviolette told The Hockey News in the postgame.
"Seven minutes into the second period, for the remaining 13 minutes, I thought we were pretty good after that. So for me that was a little bit of turning point in the period", Laviolette added.
For the second straight night, the Rangers would carry a one goal lead into the final period.
3RD PERIOD:
Lafreniere had the best look in the first few minutes of the third period.
The Rangers had a nice rush up the ice once again and a bobbling puck found Lafreniere's stick right at the top of the crease. Luukkonen made a strong recovery save.
Shortly after this Lafreniere miss, Casey Mittlestadt would bury his own rebound on Shesterkin in the result of defensive zone turnover.
Mittlestadt's goal knotted the game up at 3-3.
The Rangers had a power play opportunity in the back half of the third period. Their first unit had one or two solid looks, but the best opportunity was a shorthanded breakaway by Alex Tuch of Buffalo.
Tuch tried to open up Shesterkin's five-hole and slip it between his legs, but no dice.
Barclay Goodrow took a penalty late, with 2:51 remaining in regulation.
Very unfortunate timing for the home team.
The group responded with a phenomenal kill, thanks to a guy they've relied on in all situations this season, Vincent Trocheck.
The Rangers penalty kill came up huge at a big moment.
Laviolette was pleased with his penalty killers effort at the end of the game, "Maybe it doesn't get talked about much, but that penalty kill at the end of the game was really important. They're a dangerous group", he said.
"That game was hanging on a line with less than three minutes to go and the penalty kill was excellent", Laviolette added.
"I think we're pretty confident in it. Any time you can have a kill that you take the momentum back from the other team, I think that's huge and that says a lot about our kill. I think we did that there", Trocheck said after the game about that late penalty kill.
Dahlin ended up taking a penalty while Buffalo was on the man-advantage. This gave us 24 seconds of 4-on-4 before the Rangers would get another look at the power play to start overtime.
Shesterkin's strong play continued in overtime, as he made three point-blank saves on Buffalo. Two of them on Middlestadt.
"He saved my a** a couple of times there in overtime. He was spectacular tonight", Trocheck said about Shesterkin.
Then who else, but Zibanejad and Kreider to combine for a beautiful overtime winner, sending Rangers fans home happy for the holidays.