Lafreniere's first NHL goal gives Rangers OT victory against Sabres

BUFFALO --
Alexis Lafreniere
scored his first NHL goal 2:47 into overtime to give the New York Rangers a 3-2 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Thursday.

The No. 1 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft played his first six NHL games without a point before converting a 2-on-1 with Colin Blackwell. Lafreniere is the first No. 1 pick to score his first NHL goal in overtime.
"It's pretty crazy. Overtime, game-winning goal, it was really special. I'll never forget this moment, for sure," Lafreniere said. "I had a lot of good chances and I was just keeping it going. It was going to go in, for sure. I kept going, kept grinding. Nice pass by [Blackwell] and I had the open net. It was a really good play by 'Blacky.'"
Artemi Panarin had a goal and an assist, and Igor Shesterkin made 23 saves for New York (2-4-1), which had not won in four games (0-3-1).
"We needed this. We needed this because we had done a lot of good things," Rangers coach David Quinn said. "I look at the standings and I see our point total regarding the rest of the League and I'm shaking my head. I know what we're capable of doing. These players know what we're capable of doing.
"It was frustrating because we thought we played some good hockey over the last four games on this trip. We come out of this trip with three points, we felt we played better, we felt we maybe deserved a few more points, but that being said, the way we responded under these circumstances says an awful lot about this group. There's a lot of things you learn about your team as a season moves forward, and we learned an awful lot about our team over the last 24 hours."

Sam Reinhart had a goal and an assist, and Linus Ullmark made 36 saves for Buffalo (3-3-2).
"Linus got us the point, there's no way to dance around that one," Reinhart said. "A little too slow watching them skate around us, get to pucks first. It's not a recipe for success."
Reinhart finished a quick passing sequence on the power play to tie it 2-2 from in front at 4:47 of the third period.
Ryan Strome gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 9:44 of the first period, scoring from the bottom of the right circle off a Panarin pass. Jack Eichel tied it 1-1 at 19:38 off the rush, redirecting a pass from Reinhart.
New York outshot Buffalo 15-5 in the first period.
"A compliment to the Rangers," Sabres coach Ralph Krueger said. "They truly came out like a caged animal, coming out to fight their way back into the standings. You could feel that right off the hop. We didn't match it, which was disappointing, but I thought more than anything we managed the puck really, really badly. We were too complicated. We were too slow with our puck decisions."

A bouncing, loose puck on a Sabres clearing attempt got to Panarin in the left circle, and he made it 2-1 at 16:10 of the second period.
Lafreniere almost scored his first goal 54 seconds into the third period but was stopped by Ullmark with a quick pad save.
"Obviously everybody talks about his world-class talent, but this guy is a [gutsy] kid. He really is," Quinn said. "I don't care if he's the first pick or the 271st pick, he's a [gutsy] kid. … He probably should have had four goals tonight, but for him to get his first goal in that moment, in that situation under those circumstances, I couldn't be happier for him. His game is coming. He's playing better and better each night. It's just great to see, it really is."
NOTES: Lafreniere is the Rangers player to score his first NHL goal in overtime (regular season or playoffs), after Paul Thompson (Nov. 30, 1926), Sergei Nemchinov (Oct. 5, 1991) and Mats Zuccarello (Jan. 5, 2011). … Rangers forward Kevin Rooney played his 100th NHL game. … The Sabres defeated the Rangers 3-2 on Tuesday.