Don Granato saw telltale signs of fatigue in the Sabres' game as Thursday night wore on against the New York Rangers. He saw it in players' hesitation, in their chatter on the bench and, ultimately, on the scoreboard. An early lead had evaporated into a 2-1 deficit by midway through the third period.
It was goaltender Dustin Tokarski who kept the Sabres in the game long enough to mount a final push. Tage Thompson scored the tying goal with 3.6 seconds remaining in regulation, salvaging a point in what ended as a 3-2 overtime loss to the Rangers at KeyBank Center.
Mika Zibanejad scored the winning goal for New York on a 2-on-1 rush with 28 seconds left in overtime.
"It would have felt a lot better to get the win," Thompson said. "[Tokarski] deserved that one big time. He played a great game, stood on his head, made some huge saves for us. It would have been nice to get him the win, but I think you've got to be proud of the way we battled back."
Here are five takeaways from the game.
5 takeaways | Tokarski makes career-high 44 saves in OT loss to Rangers
Thompson scores game-tying goal in final seconds of regulation
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