Rangers hold off Sabres in OT, keep pace in Metropolitan Division

K'Andre Miller scored 2:02 into overtime to give the New York Rangers a 5-4 win against the Buffalo Sabres at Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday.

"You're going to have those games, up and down battles," Miller said. "I think it just shows how deep our team is and what we can bring every night. Obviously, it wasn't our best, but we made it work and found a way."
Frank Vatrano scored two goals, Andrew Copp had two assists, and
Alexis Lafreniere
had a goal and an assist for the Rangers (42-19-5), who have won six of their past eight games. Alexandar Georgiev made 13 saves for his third straight win.
"We played a pretty solid game again tonight, but we made some turnovers," New York coach Gerard Gallant said. "We didn't play as fast as we did the other night (a 5-1 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday), and it was probably bad getting out to that 2-0 lead. Thought it was going to be easy again, and then fall into that habit where we started turning pucks over again."

Jeff Skinner and Kyle Okposo scored, and Rasmus Dahlin and Casey Mittelstadt each had two assists for the Sabres (23-33-10), who have played five straight games that went to either overtime or a shootout (3-0-2). Craig Anderson made 26 saves.
"I think it says a lot about our group," Okposo said. "I mean, we're down 2-0 five minutes into the game, and it's a tough building, loud building. They push hard right away, and I thought we just did a really good job of calming down and settling into our game. … 'Andy' did a great job making some saves to allow us to get going in our game, but credit to our guys sticking with it."
Vatrano made it 1-0 at 3:59 of the first period with a snap shot off the rush from the right circle. He scored 18 seconds later to extend the lead to 2-0 when he intercepted Sabres forward Tage Thompson's pass attempt and scored on a breakaway.
The forward has scored four goals in six games with the Rangers since being acquired in a trade with the Florida Panthers on March 16.
"He's fitting in well," Gallant said. "That line (Vatrano, Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad) had some chances. He scored two goals, great shots, making the right plays. They're coming together."

Rasmus Asplund cut it to 2-1 at 18:12 off a backdoor pass from defenseman Mattias Samuelsson, and Will Butcher tied it 2-2 at 2:06 of the second period from the high slot.
Okposo put Buffalo in front 3-2 at 6:48 when he drove down the left side, cut around Rangers defenseman Adam Fox and scored five-hole.
"We're starting to figure out how to play every game, and that's something that's a very hard thing to do," Okposo said. "I'm not saying that we're there yet, because we're not, but we're starting to show some glimpses of it where we're sticking to our game no matter what.
"I think that today was a testament to that, and I've said it a lot, a ton of times, that that's the mark of the truly good teams in this league, and we're showing signs of getting there. By no means is it a finished product."
Lafreniere tied it 3-3 at 11:46, cutting to the front of the net and sliding the puck around Anderson with his backhand.
Artemi Panarin made it 4-3 for the Rangers at 3:52 of the third period, scoring on a rebound from the bottom of the right circle.

Skinner tied it 4-4 at 13:07 from in front during a power play after Dahlin brought the puck from the wall to the net.
"It's a big goal," Skinner said. "I think our power play, recently we've been getting decent looks, we just haven't been able to get that goal and finish the play off. But obviously a big moment in the game there."
NOTES: Rangers forward Ryan Strome left the game after the first period with a lower-body injury. Gallant said he doesn't "see anything serious." … Asplund's goal was his first since Nov. 21 (46 games). … Sabres defenseman Colin Miller was placed in NHL COVID-19 protocol. … Buffalo defenseman Casey Fitzgerald had four hits in 17:03 of ice time after missing six games with an upper-body injury. … Vatrano's two goals were the fastest by a Rangers player since Jaromir Jagr scored twice in 15 seconds on Nov. 12, 2005. … Copp has scored five points (one goal, four assists) in three games with New York since being acquired in a trade with the Winnipeg Jets on March 21. He has also scored eight points (one goal, seven assists) during a four-game point streak. … Lafreniere extended his point streak to six games (two goals, five assists). … Skinner extended his point streak to four games (four goals, one assist).