The Rangers have lost a lot of games this season that they weren’t supposed to, but they’ve also won more than a few games they weren’t expected to. Thursday, against the red-hot Buffalo Sabres, they weren’t expected to – not without goaltender Igor Shesterkin and defenseman Adam Fox, and playing at home, where they had won only five of 19 games this season.
This time, there were no surprises.
Buffalo grabbed the early lead and fought off a furious push by the Rangers to hold on for a 5-2 victory that dropped the Rangers, who had J.T. Miller in their lineup for the first time in eight games, to 5-11-4 on home ice this season, and 20-19-6 overall.
Jonathan Quick, starting in goal in place of Shesterkin, stopped 16 of 20 shots. He lost his eighth straight game (the Rangers have scored just 13 goals in those losses). His last victory was Nov. 7 at Detroit.
The Rangers lost their second in a row since the Winter Classic win on Jan. 2.
Down 3-1 after two periods, the Rangers got to within 3-2 when Vincent Trocheck scored 51 seconds into the third – 23 seconds after their first power play had expired. The Rangers put on a push after that, and when Trocheck was clipped by a high stick from Peyton Krebs that drew blood, they had a four-minute power play and a great chance to tie it up with 5:36 left.
But instead, Mattias Samuelsson scored a shorthanded goal at 14:38, and Ryan McLeod scored an empty-net goal at 18:30 and that was that.
The Rangers were wearing their Centennial jerseys, in which they had won just once in six tries, and Buffalo had won 11 of its last 12 games coming in, and also had earned points in five straight visits to Madison Square Garden (3-0-2).
The Sabres (23-15-4) took the lead at 4:07 of the first period on a goal by Josh Doan that came when Samuelsson’s shot snapped Will Cuylle’s stick in half and Samuelsson was able to retrieve the puck and dish back to Doan, who was uncovered and scored his 14th of the season from close range.
Alex Tuch made it 2-0 at 6:58 of the second, taking a drop pass from Bowen Byram and whipping a shot past Quick from the top of the slot Trocheck was given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after the goal was scored, apparently for arguing that he had been fouled before the goal, but the Rangers killed the penalty.
Thirty-six seconds after the penalty expired, the Rangers got on the board on a goal by Mika Zibanejad, who one-timed a pass from Artemi Panarin past Buffalo goaltender Colten Ellis at 9:34.
But Buffalo restored their two-goal lead on a power-play goal by Jason Zucker at 12:34, with Matthew Robertson in the box for a holding penalty.
Notes & quotes: Panarin’s second assist, on Trocheck’s goal, was the 600th of his career.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.