Hutton, Sabres hold off Rangers for first win

BUFFALO-- Carter Hutton made 43 saves for the Buffalo Sabres in a 3-1 win against the New York Rangers at KeyBank Center on Saturday.

"I think I've felt good so far this whole preseason, season," Hutton said. "You get some breaks and we battle hard. I thought I fought hard through traffic to find pucks, and we did a good job of eliminating second chances. And I think the special teams tonight is the difference."
Conor Sheary scored his first two goals for the Sabres, who lost their season opener 4-0 to the Boston Bruins on Thursday.
WATCH: [All Rangers vs. Sabres highlights]
New York lost its second straight, including 3-2 to the Nashville Predators on Thursday.
"We did a lot of good things better than we did the other night," Rangers coach David Quinn said. "At the end of the day, though, this is a game of taking advantage of your opportunities, and they took advantage of two of theirs and we only took advantage of one of ours."
Sheary scored Buffalo's first goal of the season on the power play at 13:15 of the first period for a 1-0 lead. Rasmus Ristolainen sent a cross-ice pass to the left wing on a 2-on-1, and Sheary beat Henrik Lundqvist stick side from the left circle.
"It's been a while since I scored going back to last year, so that one definitely felt good," said Sheary, who was acquired this offseason in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins. "To get your first one on a new team as well I feel is important and kind of let me relax the rest of the game."

Sheary made it 2-0, again on the power play, at 1:42 of the second period when he took a quick shot off a pass from Sam Reinhart, beating Lundqvist from the right side of the crease.
Hutton, 4-0-0 against New York, brought the crowd to its feet with a save against Brett Howden on a 3-on-0 at 4:52.
"I just tried to be patient on it," Hutton said. "I think they kind of overplay it. I think they make one too many passes on it and it gets jammed up. I'm patient enough that I get my edge to push over and make the save. It's something we don't want to get in the habit of giving up, that's for sure."

Lundqvist made 26 saves, including a right-leg kick save on Evan Rodrigues 1:24 into the third period.
"I don't think we can play much better. I don't think we can create more chances," Lundqvist said. "The important thing here is to just understand what to do at the right time around the blue lines, smart plays at the right time."
Howden made it 2-1 on the Rangers' 40th shot, shovelling a rebound in the crease for his first NHL goal at 15:21 of the third.
Jack Eichel made it 3-1 with an empty-net goal with two seconds remaining.

They said it

"We're playing tomorrow night. It's not going to get any easier. We're going to [the Carolina Hurricanes], it's a tough place to play. They're coming off a big win, so we've got to be ready. Learn from our mistakes and what we can do better and then we'll go into Carolina and try to get a win." -- Rangers defenseman Marc Staal
"We want our [defensemen] joining the rush, but we were a little reckless there on the go. … Carter makes one of the saves of the year on that 3-on-0. That got our bench to stand up. We fed off Carter's energy." -- Sabres coach Phil Housley

Need to know

Eichel played an NHL career-high 25:45, surpassing his previous high of 24:23 set Feb. 18, 2017. ... Sheary had his eighth NHL multigoal game and 20th multipoint game. ... Howden played his second NHL game.

What's next

Rangers: At the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday (5 p.m. ET; FS-CR, MSG, NHL.TV)
Sabres: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday (3 p.m. ET, NHLN, TVAS, MSG-B, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV)