Rangers vs. Sabres: Georgiev, Rangers Dominate Sabres 5-1

Following a 5-4 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night, the New York Rangers rebounded this evening with a big win over the Buffalo Sabres. With Henrik Lundqvist still not dressing due to soreness after a collision the other night, Alexandar Georgiev started in net once again for the Rangers. Georgiev was certainly put to the test early in this game with the Sabres coming out flying during the first 10 minutes.

The Sabres wound up registering 21 shots on goal during the first period, but despite their strong play, the Rangers opened the scoring at the 16:29 mark. The trio of Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, and Jesper Fast kept their point streaks alive with Kreider tapping home a beautiful centering feed from Mika Zibanejad at the top of the crease. Nearly a minute and a half later, Jimmy Vesey scored his 16th goal of the season on a creative redirect to himself just inside the hash marks.

Carrying their momentum over to the second period, the Rangers made it 3-0 with Neal Pionk burying his first career NHL goal off to the side of Robin Lehner. A short time later, the Rangers kept the goals flowing with Mika Zibanejad and Jimmy Vesey each adding another goal to give the Rangers a five goal lead at the end of 40 minutes.

Unfortunately, the Sabres finally broke Georgiev’s shutout late in the third period on the 39th shot on goal coming from Sam Reinhart. It came on a redirect just inside the high slot and Georgiev never stood a chance on the goal against. Following the goal, the Rangers were able to kill off the remaining time on the clock and closed out a 5-1 victory at Madison Square Garden.

The Rangers will have a scheduled off day on Sunday before returning to action on Monday against the Washington Capitals. Both Lias Andersson and Filip Chytil are expected to be recalled sometime before then and be in the lineup to finish out the remainder of the season with the Rangers.