Sheary scores Sabres' lone goal as Lundqvist leads Rangers to victory

NEW YORK - One night after scoring nine goals in a win, the Buffalo Sabres were able to only put one past New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist on Sunday.
The Rangers goaltender was the difference as he made 39 saves in New York's 3-1 win at Madison Square Garden.

"I really liked the way we played from start to finish," coach Phil Housley said. "Obviously, we would've liked to take two or three shifts back in the second period, but other than that, I thought we controlled the play."
The Sabres outshot the Rangers 15-5 in the first period and while they mostly controlled the play, they weren't able to capitalize. The Rangers then scored twice in a 19-second span to open the second period and the Sabres faced an uphill battle from there.

Neal Pionk tallied 41 seconds into the frame on a wrist shot through traffic that deflected in on Carter Hutton. Then they went up 2-0 on the next shift thanks to a shot from the slot by Jimmy Vesey that Hutton didn't see clearly.
"We put up 40 shots. I thought he played really well and it's frustrating from my point of view, sitting there. I thought the team battled hard. We put up nine last game and tonight we were only able to find one. That's the way it goes sometimes," Hutton said.
They nearly made it 3-0 when Mika Zibanejad cranked one off the post on a breakaway 4:20 later.
The Sabres had chances to get back in it on the man advantage. Buffalo's power play went 0-for-4 on the night with 14 shots on net, but despite generating good chances, they were unable to solve Lundqvist.
On the second of back-to-back power plays halfway through the middle frame, Lundqvist made one of his best saves of the night when he robbed Conor Sheary in tight.
"Lundqvist played well. He made a lot of big stops in tight," Sheary said. "When he gets scrambling like that, that's a lot of times when he makes his good saves. He was on tonight. We just ran into a good goalie and we've just got to stick with it."
Hutton kept the Sabres in the game after they found themselves behind and finished with 19 saves.

"Henrik played really, really well tonight. Story of the night is we've just got to find the back of the net," he said. "Frustrating, you obviously want to be able to answer the bell and tonight, a few things go their way and they're able to hang on."
The Sabres finally got on the board 6:07 into the third when Sheary knocked in his own rebound. It was Sheary's fifth of the season and he now has goals in consecutive games.

Vesey added his second of the night on an empty netter with 1:51 to play.
Buffalo had defeated the Ottawa Senators 9-2 on Saturday at home and were hoping to start another winning streak. The Sabres saw a five-game point streak that included three wins in a row snapped on Thursday, and are now 1-2-2 in their last five.
"We didn't any points out of the game so it's frustrating," captain Jack Eichel said. "I thought this was an opportunity for us to come in after a good game yesterday and find a way to get four points on the weekend. It's frustrating that we don't."
The Sabres will be back in action on Thursday when they go into Montreal to face the Canadiens at Bell Centre. They'll look to build on some of the positives and learn some lessons from this loss.
"I liked the way we played the game tonight," Housley said. "If we continue to play like that, we're going to win a lot of hockey games."