At The Final Horn | Sabres earn point against Rangers

Two Buffalo Sabres ended lengthy goal droughts to help the club earn a point Sunday evening on the road against the New York Rangers.
Rasmus Asplund scored his first goal in 46 games and Will Butcher, playing in his first game since January 29 due to injury, potted his first goal since December 11, 2021.
The Sabres ended up falling 5-4 in overtime at Madison Square Garden.
The game marked the first time since November 6 to 15, 2010 that the Sabres have played five consecutive games that went beyond regulation time. Buffalo is now 3-1-1 in those games and 2-1 in the games that have ended in overtime.

Kyle Okposo and Jeff Skinner also scored in the back-and-forth affair. Craig Anderson stopped 26 of the 31 shots he faced.
K'Andre Miller netted the overtime winner. Frank Vatrano scored two quick goals early in the first period to open the scoring, and Alexis Lafreniere and Artemi Panarin scored for New York, too. Alexandar Georgiev made 13 saves.
Buffalo's power play finished 1-for-1 and the penalty kill was successful on New York's only opportunity with the man advantage.

How it happened

The Rangers won a defensive zone draw and broke out into the Sabres end to set up the game's first goal 3:59 into the contest. Vatrano finished the play for his 13th goal of the season.
Vatrano scored on a breakaway after he picked off an outlet pass just 18 seconds later to make it 2-0.

Asplund put Buffalo on the board with 1:48 left in the opening period when he buried a cross-ice feed from Mattias Samuelsson.

Butcher was wide open in the slot when he fired a wrist shot in for his second goal of the year to tie the game 2-2 at the 2:06 mark of the second period.

Okposo put the Sabres ahead for the first time when he drove to the net and forced the puck five hole.
New York tied the game with 8:14 left in the second when Lafreniere finished a nice passing play through the Sabres zone with a backhander.
At the 3:52 mark of the third period, Panarin scored on a rebound to put the Rangers up 4-3.
And with 6:53 to go, Skinner tied things up again with a power-play goal. He now has 27 goals on the season.
The teams battled for possession in overtime before Miller jumped into the play and wristed a shot top shelf from the slot 2:02 into the extra period.

Roll the highlight film

Here's Skinner's game-tying goal:

Worthy of a mention

• Before the game, head coach Don Granato announced that defenseman Colin Miller has entered the NHL's COVID-19 protocol.
• Asplund's last goal came on November 21, 2021, which, coincidentally, was also against the Rangers.

Coming up

The Sabres wrap up their back-to-back set on the road Monday night. They'll face the Chicago Blackhawks at 8:30 p.m. Pregame coverage on MSG starts at 8.