The Sabres played the Rangers Thursday night at Madison Square Garden riding a hot 3-game winning streak, but that was snapped with a 6-2 loss to the struggling New York squad.
The Rangers, who had lost 5 games in a row prior to capturing two points against the Sabres tonight, came flying out of the gate, potting 3 goals in the first period to jump out to a commanding 3-0 lead.
The Sabres killed off an early too-many men penalty to keep the game a 0-0 tie, but it was Artemi Panarin netting his 5th goal on the season to give the Blueshirts a 1-0 lead. New York would score twice more in the first frame on goals from Brett Howden and Ryan Strome, who scored his first of the season to make it 3-0.
The second period was a better showing for Buffalo, as defenseman Marco Scandella wristed one to the back of the net, only to have that answered later in the middle frame by Rangers defenseman Tony DeAngelo, who scored his fourth goal of the season and second point of the night.
Sabres forward Vladimir Sobotka netted his first of the season later in the second to make it a 4-2 game and bring the Sabres to within two.
That was all the offense the Sabres would produce though, as the Rangers scored twice more in the third on Strome’s second of the night and a redirect off Zemgus Girgensons that was credited to Chris Kreider to skate away with a 6-2 victory.
Carter Hutton stopped 18 of 24 shots, while Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist stopped 31 of 33 on the other end.
The Buffalo Sabres are back at it tomorrow for the second half of a back-to-back, a 7:30 pm puck drop against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesar’s Arena in Detroit.