At The Final Horn: Rangers 3 - Sabres 2 (OT)

Linus Ullmark made 36 saves for the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday, but the New York Rangers prevailed with a 3-2 overtime victory at KeyBank Center.
Alexis Lafrenière, the first overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, scored his first career goal with 2:13 remaining in overtime to give New York the victory.
Sam Reinhart recorded a goal and an assist and Jack Eichel also scored for Buffalo.
Ryan Strome and Artemi Panarin scored for the Rangers. Igor Shesterkin stopped 23 shots for New York.

What happened

New York outshot the Sabres 15-5 in the opening frame, but Buffalo came out even thanks to a late goal. With 21.3 seconds left, the Sabres came down on the rush and Reinhart hit Eichel with a perfect feed. As he hit the top of the crease, Eichel kept his stick down on the ice and redirected the puck in.
Strome scored the game's opening goal at the 9:43 mark of the first. The Rangers sustained pressure in the Sabres end and he was able to one-time in a cross-ice feed from Artemi Panarin.
New York regained the lead during 4-on-4 action with 2:49 left in the second period when Panarin grabbed a loose puck that deflected near the left corner and fired a shot short side to put New York ahead 2-1.
About a minute earlier, Ullmark made a great point-blank glove save on Ryan D'Angelo, who raced in from the slot. He was strong all night for Buffalo and made several nice saves, including this one on Mika Zibanejad:

Reinhart tied the game 4:47 into the third period on the power play when, in tight, he deflected in a crossing attempt from Victor Olofsson.
Lafrenière's goal came on a 2-on-1 with Colin Blackwell, who fed the rookie to end the game.

Roll the highlight film

Here's Reinhart's nifty pass to Eichel for Buffalo's first goal.

Worth a mention

With his goal, Eichel passed Jochen Hecht for sole possession of the 19th-most goals in franchise history (139). He now trails Drew Stafford by six goals for 18th.
And in New Jersey, former Sabres coach Lindy Ruff coached his 1,500th NHL game. He's just the seventh head coach in NHL history to be behind the bench for 1,500 games. Buffalo will face Ruff's new team, the Devils, on Saturday and Sunday.

Coming up

The aforementioned Devils will be in town this weekend for a pair of games.
Faceoff on Saturday is set for 1 p.m. on MSG and WGR 550. The pregame show will begin at 12:30 on MSG.