Ullmark makes 36 saves in OT loss to Rangers

Linus Ullmark had already robbed Alexis Lafreniere of his first NHL goal once. The New York Rangers rookie made sure not to let it happen again.
Lafreniere buried a 2-on-1 feed from Colin Blackwell with 2:13 remaining in overtime to clinch a 3-2 win for the Rangers over the Sabres at KeyBank Center on Thursday. The fact that the Sabres managed to extend their point streak to four games at all was a testament to the effort of their goaltender.
"Linus got us a point," said Sam Reinhart, who tallied a goal and an assist. "There's just no way to dance around that one."

Ullmark made a season-high 36 saves, biding time for Reinhart and Jack Eichel to score goals and force overtime on a night when the Sabres were otherwise outplayed.
Artemi Panarin led the way for New York with a goal and an assist. Ryan Strome also scored, while goaltender Igor Shesterkin made 23 saves.
Here are five takeaways from the game, beginning with the outstanding play of Buffalo's goaltender.

1. Ullmark steals a point

Ullmark has been a constant in net for the Sabres during their four-game point streak. The goaltender returned from a two-game absence spurred by the loss of his father in a shootout loss to Washington last Friday. He won in a shootout Sunday, then made 28 saves in Tuesday's win over New York.
He elevated his game to even higher heights Thursday, stringing together his own personal highlight reel during a 36-save performance. The first show-stopping save came late in the second period, when Ullmark robbed a point-blank chance for defenseman Tony DeAngelo.
Panarin capitalized off a Sabres turnover less than a minute after that stop on DeAngelo, giving the Rangers a 2-1 lead. Ullmark set the tone for the third when he dropped into a split and robbed Lafreniere, the No. 1 overall pick, with his right pad. Watch it below.

The show continued from there. Ullmark stuck with a Panarin one-timer that was shot from directly in front of the net. He used the right pad again to stop a Mika Zibanejad one-timer with the Rangers on a power play and the game tied, 2-2.

"Linus played outstanding, stayed calm in some of the chaos that we had in our end and really looked like a top goalie in the world today," Sabres coach Ralph Krueger said. "It's the most positive thing out of an overall disappointing night."
Natural Stat Trick credited the Rangers with 10 high-danger shot attempts in regulation.
"Sometimes you just have some luck with it," Ullmark said. "Today was one of those days where you kind of position yourself in a good spot where you can make a couple of good saves. When I was not in position, I had my teammates that were blocking shots."

2. Rangers make a push

The Rangers' dissatisfaction with their game on Tuesday was evident from the start. They spent most of the opening 20 minutes swarming the Buffalo zone with strong, frantic forechecking and opened the scoring with a goal from Strome that began with a Zibanejad-forced turnover in the neutral zone.
The Sabres managed to escape the first period with the score tied thanks to some last-minute magic from their top line, but the Rangers continued their push in the second. By the time the second intermission began, shots were 24-9 in favor of New York.
"They truly came out like a caged animal, coming out to fight their way back into the standings," Krueger said. "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."
Buffalo's strong 5-on-5 play through its first seven games was evident whether one relied on the eye test or looked at the underlying statistics. The team began the day ranked third in high-danger chance percentage (64.3) and fourth in expected goals percentage (57.4).
They came away from two strong performances with no points - one at home against Washington and another in Philadelphia. Thursday was the inverse.
"That's about as bad as we've played this year," Sabres captain Jack Eichel said. "We find a way to get a point, thankfully, from good goaltending and our penalty kill coming up big. But we've got to find a way to play a lot better than that."

3. Slow start, strong finish for the power play

The Sabres' power play entered the game red-hot with five goals in its last nine attempts. It seemed to cool down through its first three attempts Thursday, struggling to cleanly enter the offensive zone and then not generating shots on goal once it did.
"I think it was just similar to our 5-on-5 play," Reinhart said. "Not getting to pucks first, not making the simple play, and losing those races. Like I said, it's tough to find success in any part of our game when we're clearly the slower team in the first."
Buffalo's fourth try finally yielded a result, with Reinhart scoring the game-tying goal at 4:47 of the third period. Eichel fed a pass across to Victor Olofsson, who hit Reinhart at the back door.

4. Eichel scores again

Eichel waited seven games to score his first goal of the season. Now, he's on a two-game scoring streak.
The captain put the Sabres on the board with 21.3 seconds remaining in the first period. Reinhart collected a loose puck near his own blue line, carried it through the neutral zone and slowed as he delivered a seeing-eyed pass across the Rangers' net. Eichel sped behind the defense for a tap-in goal.

5. Devils up next

The Sabres finish the four-game homestand with a back-to-back set against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday and Sunday. They will be Taylor Hall's first games against his former team since a mid-season trade sent him to Arizona in December 2019.
Coverage of both games on MSG begins at 12:30 p.m., with puck drop set for 1.