Eichel's first goal of season helps Sabres get past Rangers

BUFFALO -- Jack Eichel scored his first goal of the season to break a tie in the second period, helping the Buffalo Sabres to a 3-2 win against the New York Rangers at KeyBank Center on Tuesday.

"Yeah, it's a relief to get one and put one in the back of the net and get that one out of me," said Eichel, the Sabres captain, who entered with seven assists in six games. "Like I've said before, that's my job on this team is to produce offense and score goals. It was good to make an impact offensively tonight. … It was good to see we're getting contributions up and down the lineup."
Eichel made it 3-2 with a one-timer from between the circles on the power play at 7:31.
Dylan Cozens and Tobias Rieder scored, and Linus Ullmark made 28 saves for Buffalo (3-3-1), which won its second straight game.

K'Andre Miller scored his first NHL goal, Chris Kreider scored, and Alexandar Georgiev made 21 saves for New York (1-4-1), which has lost four in a row, all by one goal.
"A loss is a loss is a loss," Kreider said. "Doesn't matter if you're close and doing the right things, it doesn't matter if maybe the other team is tilting the ice a little bit. It's about finding ways to win. It's [four] in a row now. We've got to hate losing in that room and we've got to nip it in the bud right now."
The teams play again here Thursday.
Kreider gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 6:28 of the first period. Pavel Buchnevich picked up a loose puck after Sabres defenseman Colin Miller's pass attempt bounced off a skate back and passed to Kreider in the slot.
Cozens one-timed a pass from Eric Staal on the power play to tie it 1-1 at 12:50.
"He's obviously such a smart player," Cozens said. "He finds the open guy. I knew as soon as it was going to him he was going to tap it to me, so it was a great play by him."
Miller scored from the point to put New York ahead 2-1 with seven seconds left in the period.

Rieder sped down the right wing as a Sabres penalty expired and slid the puck behind Georgiev on a breakaway to tie it 2-2 at 6:03 of the second period.
"We get the goal at the end of the first, which is huge," Rangers coach David Quinn said, "we're up 2-1, then we give up a goal, and boy did our bench get demoralized. You could just feel it. There wasn't any life to our bench. We were lucky to get out of that period only down by one. Obviously we had more life in the third, we had some chances in the third, but you're not going to win games like that. We better cure this in a hurry."
The Sabres were on the penalty kill for the final 1:37 of the third with the Rangers at 6-on-4 after Georgiev was pulled for the extra attacker.
"The big things today were our penalty killing and the guys we call our defensive anchor players were decisive in the win today," Sabres coach Ralph Krueger said. "Extremely pleased with the way we grounded the game out. I thought we were far from our best hockey in the first period and we needed a little time to get going after the day off yesterday. But found a way to win through character and perseverance."
NOTES: Sabres defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen had an assist playing in his 500th NHL game. … Defenseman Matt Irwin had an assist and played 17:57 in his Buffalo debut.