Recap: Rangers Fall to Desperate Sabres in Shootout, 3-2

The Rangers hosted the Buffalo Sabres in their penultimate game of the season Monday night. Buffalo basically needs to win out to even have a chance of making the playoffs, which made for a more interesting match up than the Rangers have had lately.

Prior to the puck drop, Ryan Lindgren was awarded the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award, and, yeah, that feels right. He never takes a shift off and plays with great determination. Congratulations to him.

First Period:

Buffalo certainly looked like the team with more to play for—they spent a good portion of the period in the Rangers’ zone and put the puck on net far more often than the Blueshirts. Igor Shesterkin made some big saves, but late in the period, JJ Petreka opened the scoring for the second time in a row against the Rangers. Jack Quinn played the puck around Nico Mikkola and found his German linemate streaking toward the net.

Devon Levi, who earned his first career win against the Rangers last time the two teams met, only faced four shots on goal.

Second Period:

Tage Thompson got called for high-sticking Artemiy Panarin in the waning minutes of the first, and Panarin made him pay early in the second with the game-tying powerplay goal. Carrying the puck with speed, Mika Zibanejad gained the offensive zone before hitting Panarin with a cross-ice pass, and Panarin found plenty of room short-side. It was his 27^thgoal and 90^th point of the season.

Panarin later put the Rangers ahead 2-1. Vincent Trocheck lost an edge, but still managed to keep the play alive by pipping the puck to Vladimir Tarasenko. Tarasenko moved it to Panarin, and Panarin sniped one into the top corner. At time of writing, Trocheck was not credited with an assist, but he deserves one, I say!

Neither team found the back of the net for the rest of the period, but both Igor and Levi made some huge saves.

Third Period:

The Sabres tied the game midway through the third. K’Andre Miller bobbled a pass, and Alex Tuch was there to take it away. Casey Mittelstadt followed up and roofed it to tie the game. Miller just seemed off all night—this was not his only unforced error handling the puck.

The teams traded long stretches of tilting the ice, but ultimately the score remained tied at 2-2.

OT/SO

So for the third time this year, Buffalo and New York needed overtime to settle the score. Panarin and Fox got caught on ice a long time, leading to a sloppy line-change and a too-many-men minor. On the ensuring penalty kill, Ryan Lindgren went down to block a shot and took a puck off his head. That’s the kind of play that wins you the Steven McDonald Award, I suppose. He headed to the locker room, but was back before the next whistle. Despite Buffalo swarming, they couldn’t solve Igor, and thus began the shootout.

Levi and Shesterkin both kept the puck out in the first three frames before conceding goals in the fourth frame to Owen Power and Tarasenko. Casey Mittelstadt scored for Buffalo in the fifth, leaving Kaapo Kakko with the game on his stick. He made a move, but Levi poked the puck away to clinch the victory.

. . .

Buffalo’s victory, combined with losses by the Islanders and Panthers, means they get to live to see another day. Despite their inconsistent effort, the Rangers still could have won, but Miller’s turnover proved costly. I’d really rather Lindgren cool it out at this point in the season, but the man just can’t turn it off. Also, even though he's already on his way to becoming a Rangers Killer in his young career, I find myself really liking Devon Levi. His meditations during breaks, his complete stoicism in the face of dekes in the shootout, the fact that he's making his NHL debut at 21 years old in the midst of a desperate playoff chase and thriving? Yeah, pretty cool player.

The Rangers wrap up their regular season at home on Thursday against the Toronto Maple Leafs.