New York (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres skated into New York City on Monday to play the NHL's No. 1 team at their home in Madison Square Garden. The New York Rangers were 13-1-1 in their last 15 games, and had beaten the Sabres on opening night, 5-1.
Meanwhile, the Sabres were coming off a 7-2 pasting on Saturday against the New Jersey Devils in Newark.
The Sabres came out and played their game, and got great goaltending from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to beat the Rangers, 5-1. It’s just another example of when this team plays the way the coaches ask them to play, they’re a very good team.
The problem is, games like Monday are few and far between.
Buffalo led 2-0 in the third period when Mika Zibanejad scored a power play goal. The fans got crazy, and the Rangers took over.
In any game, there are momentum changes. While it was happening, Luukkonen absolutely withstood the barrage until his team settled down and started playing fast and fearless again.
Buffalo got out shot, but it never really seemed like they were in trouble in that period.
Some great work got them the goal to make it 3-1 late in the third. Owen Power made a nice stretch pass to Casey Mittelstadt to start a good breakout. Mittelstadt won the battle on the wall and found Alex Tuch down the slot for his second goal of the game.
The Sabres usually don’t score the empty-net goal, and often it costs them. In this game, Jeff Skinner did a terrific job of getting the puck out of the zone and ahead to Mittelstadt for the empty-netter to make the score 4-1.
In the first period, the Sabres had a great start. They were defending well, using their speed and getting into the zone. They created chances, but Tuch got a penalty.
You may have wondered if the Sabres would lose their momentum, because it happens a lot, but they didn’t. To their credit, they killed it off, and produced a nice goal by JJ Peterka.
Another huge problem for the Sabres is they get behind early and then have to chase the game. They didn’t have to in this one, as they led 1-0 after 20 minutes and 2-0 after 40 minutes.
It looked like the Rangers were going to score in the third period, as Jimmy Vesey had, what looked like, a wide-open net staring him in the face. However, Luukkonen, with his long reach, got the paddle of his stick in the way to make the save.
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There were so many good plays to talk about in this game, I can’t get to them all.
Buffalo is now 3-1-1 in its last five games, but is this game against the Rangers sustainable? Can they take playing the way they’re supposed to into the game with the St. Louis Blues on Thursday?
I talked about a lot of flaws with this team on Saturday, and one really impressive win doesn’t take that away. They are certainly capable of some really good hockey.
We saw it on Monday. They now need to make it a habit.
