The New York Rangers had the chance to put an emphatic exclamation point on the home portion of their schedule Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden. But like so many other times this season, they failed to get the job done on home ice, falling to the Buffalo Sabres 5-3.
The Rangers (33-37-9) were rejuvenated at MSG down the stretch, winning five of six coming into this finale of a season-long seven-game homestand. And it appeared the Rangers were going to take down, perhaps, the hottest team in the NHL on Wednesday, holding a 3-2 lead early in the third period.
But the Sabres (48-23-8) scored three unanswered goals in the final period — by Alex Tuch, Jason Tucker, and Zach Benson — to earn the comeback victory and move into sole possession of first place in the Atlantic Division. Buffalo held New York to one shot on goal in the third period, and goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen finished with 17 saves.
Alexis Lafreniere scored twice for the Rangers, who’ll play their final three games of the 2025-26 season on the road. Adam Fox had a goal and an assist to extend his point streak to eight games. Igor Shesterkin stopped 22 of 26 shots in the loss.
The Rangers spotted the Sabres two goals in the opening nine minutes of play, before scoring three straight to carry a 3-2 lead into the second intermission.
Buffalo’s Ryan McLeod got things started at 4:40 of the first period, scoring his 13th goal of the season. McLeod beat Shesterkin with a right-wing shot off the rush, one of several rush opportunities for the speedy Sabres in the early portion of the game.
Rasmus Dahlin made a gorgeous pass through a maze of players that caromed off Benson and into the net at 8:59 to make it 2-0 Sabres. Four minutes later it was nearly 3-0, but Tage Thompson rang a shot off the post, after Conor Sheary’s turnover in the neutral zone led to another rush chance for the Sabres.
McLeod’s tripping penalty at 18:24 of the first period provided the opening the Rangers needed to swing momentum their way, however. And at 19:21, they did just that when Lafreniere deflected Fox’s slap pass into the cage for a power-play goal, drawing the Rangers back to within one.
After a successful penalty kill by the Rangers early in the second period, Lafreniere and Co. struck again to tie the score, 2-2, at 2:57. Lafreniere took a head-man pass from Drew Fortescue, got behind the Buffalo defensemen, and wired a forehand shot past Luukkonen to tie things up with his 24th goal of the season.
New York’s power play went back to work at 14:14 when Peyton Krebs was whistled for hooking; and it took only 30 seconds before the Rangers had their first lead of the night. After patiently working the puck around the perimeter, Vincent Trocheck passed it to Fox, who zipped a shot through a Lafreniere screen, beating Luukkonen blocker side for his ninth goal of the season, to make it 3-2 Rangers.
It stayed that way because the Rangers killed off consecutive Sabres power plays late in the second, including 56 seconds of a 5-on-3, to maintain their lead into the intermission.
But with Vladislav Gavrikov and Tuch battling in front of Shesterkin, the Sabres forward was able to get his stick blade on a Krebs shot and deflect it past the Rangers goalie for his 31st goal to tie the game 3-3 at 5:45 of the third period.
And the Sabres struck again at 7:14, when Zucker patiently tucked the puck into the net after collecting it in front and working around a prone Shesterkin for his 24th goal.
The Rangers had little pushback, and didn’t record their first — and only — shot of the third period until J.T. Miller’s long wrist shot at 18:26. Shortly thereafter Benson scored his second goal of the game, this one into an empty-net off an unselfish pass by Josh Doan, to make it 5-3 at 18:45.
Key takeaways after Rangers lose 5-3 to the Sabres in home finale
Dennis Schneidler-Imagn Images
Home groan
The Rangers finished the season with a 14-20-7 home record, despite this mostly successful and uplifting homestand, which included two rousing victories over playoff contenders — the Detroit Red Wings and Washington Capitals — this past weekend.
Those 14 home wins are fewest, by far, in the Eastern Conference, and fourth fewest in the entire NHL. The last-overall Vancouver Canucks have eight wins at home, with one more game to play on home ice. The only worse record at MSG over the past 22 years was in 2003-04, when the Rangers were 13-21-4 with three ties at home.
Though things got better at The Garden late this season, it’s impossible to ignore their 0-6-1 record with five shutouts losses at home to begin the 2025-26 campaign.
“It’s been a tough year for everyone here, especially at home, so we know [the fans have] been frustrated. When we’re on home ice, we want to do it for them. We haven’t done a great job doing that this year,” Trocheck said postgame.
Special performance
Dennis Schneidler-Imagn Images
The Rangers were eventually outscored 4-1 at even strength, but they nearly pulled off a big victory on the backs of their special teams play. The Rangers were 2-for-3 on the power play, though did fail to tie the game with a brief opportunity on the man advantage in the third period. Still, they worked the puck around with confidence and plenty of swagger on the power play, which entered the game third in the NHL at 25.5 percent, and now is a scorching 5-for 9 in the past three games. Lafreniere’s power-play goal was his career-high ninth of the season.
And the Blueshirts were pretty darn good on the penalty kill, too, against the Sabres. New York was a perfect 4-for-4 on the kill, including an abbreviated PK midway through the third period. And they had that massive kill of the two-man disadvantage in the second period.
The Rangers PK has allowed one power-play goal in the past eight games (killing 23 of 24 times short-handed). And on Wednesday, Will Cuylle very nearly scored a short-handed goal, off a Trocheck set-up, late in the middle period, coming that close to giving the Rangers a 4-2 lead.
Hot potato
The teams played as much “hot potato” as they did hockey for a healthy stretch of the first period. It started just 52 seconds into play when a ghastly turnover by the Sabres in their own end set up a prime scoring opportunity for Mika Zibanejad, who rang a sizzling shot off the post. At 6:14, another hellacious giveaway by Buffalo landed on the stick of Noah Laba all alone in front of the net, though the rookie was denied 1-on-1 by Luukkonen.
Two minutes later, Shesterkin cleaned up Braden Schneider’s mess that allowed an in-close shot by Doan. But it still proved costly because the Rangers were caught scrambling, and the Sabres scored seconds later to take a 2-0 lead. Then there was Sheary’s turnover that Thompson just missed cashing in on.
Things did settle down, but for what it’s worth, the Sabres were “credited” with 17 giveaways, and the Rangers 11, in this one. And it felt like the mostly costly ones were early on in the first period.
Jim Cerny is Executive Editor at Forever Blueshirts and Managing Editor at Sportsnaut, with more than 30 years of … More about Jim Cerny
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