Panarin goal lifts Rangers past Sabres in OT

BUFFALO -- Artemi Panarin scored a power-play goal at 2:02 of overtime, giving the New York Rangers a 2-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Saturday.

Panarin scored on a rebound from the bottom of the left face-off circle.
New York controlled possession in overtime, outshooting Buffalo 3-0.
"Obviously those guys did a great job of hanging onto it, making plays and being able to draw a penalty," Rangers forward Patrick Kane said.
Kane scored for a second straight game for New York (37-19-9), which has won four of its past six and is nine points behind the New Jersey Devils for second place in the Metropolitan Division. Igor Shesterkin made 32 saves.
"We played a better defensive game until late in the third (period), when we give them those scoring chances, point blank," Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. "And [Igor Shesterkin] was outstanding. But played a solid game overall. And you know Buffalo was going to come out tonight and play a real good solid game, and they did."

Jeff Skinner scored, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 24 saves for Buffalo (32-28-5), which has lost four straight and six of seven. The Sabres are seven points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders for a wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
"I think there's been a little bit of a tough stretch of games and we gave up a lot of goals," said Luukkonen of the Sabres, who allowed 35 goals in their previous seven games, including a 10-4 loss to the Dallas Stars on Thursday. "This one is real tough because we played such a good game today. How tight we played defense today, how good we were at both ends. It stinks to lose this one but it is what it is."
Skinner gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead at 7:52 of the second period when he one-timed a cross-ice pass from Ilya Lyubushkin from the right circle.
"It was a great pass," Skinner said. "Great job by [Tage Thompson] to drive it and sort of draw their guy to him and then mostly more the vision (by Lyubushkin) to see me there. It was a tight window. He didn't have much time, so it was a great pass by him."
Kane tied it 1-1 at 11:28 when his centering pass from the bottom of the right circle deflected off the skate of Sabres defenseman Owen Power and through Luukkonen's pads.
"It's just unlucky but I think that tells you how well the [defensemen] played today," Luukkonen said. "They didn't give them much. That's kind of what they needed today for scoring goals, plus to get a little bit of a bounce, just we played so well today as a five-man unit. It stinks a little bit more because those are tough bounces, but you can't decide how the goals go in in the end."

Buffalo outshot New York 13-5 in the second period.
"I think we competed from the start," Rangers defenseman Adam Fox said. "We had a little bit of lulls, obviously the second period wasn't the best. They were kind of giving it to us in transition and we didn't really sustain too much [offensive] zone time. But came out in the third and I thought we were pretty good there. We were getting some chances around the net, some second-chance opportunities, and then we kind of battled there for those two points at the end."
NOTES: Kane scored his eighth goal in 11 NHL games in his hometown, and his first goal here since Feb. 1, 2019, with the Chicago Blackhawks. … Mika Zibanejad assisted on Panarin's goal, giving him 13 points (six goals, seven assists) in regular-season overtime periods with New York. He is fourth in Rangers history behind Mark Messier (15 points), Frank Boucher (14 points) and Brian Leetch (14 points). … New York forward Tyler Motte had one shot on goal and one hit in 10:10 of ice time after missing two games with an upper-body injury. ... Sabres forward Tyson Jost had three shots on goal and played 13:32 in his 400th NHL game. … Skinner has 18 goals against the Rangers for his career, his third-most against an opponent (Montreal Canadiens, 23; Devils, 19).