At The Final Horn: Sabres 3 - Rangers 5

The Buffalo Sabres dropped the first game of their four-game road trip Monday night with a 5-3 loss to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
Rasmus Asplund, Dylan Cozens and Jeff Skinner scored for Buffalo.
Goaltender Dustin Tokarski made his Sabres debut after starting netminder Carter Hutton left the game 2:53 into the first period with a lower-body injury. Tokarski made 33 saves.
Chris Kreider and Kaapo Kakko each scored twice for the Rangers. Kreider scored both of his goals on the power play, and his pair included the game-winning goal. Adam Fox also scored for New York. Keith Kinkaid stopped 16 shots.
Buffalo was outshot 40-19.
The Sabres are now winless in their last 14 games, matching a franchise record. The team is 0-12-2 over that stretch.

The game marked Tokarski's first NHL appearance since October 28, 2016 when he was with Anaheim. He had played two games for the Rochester Americans this year, going 1-1-0 with a .932 save percentage and a 2.51 goals-against average.
The Sabres traded goaltender Jonas Johansson, who had made six starts for Buffalo this year, to Colorado in exchange for a sixth-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft on Saturday.
Linus Ullmark has been out since February 25 with a lower-body injury. Recently signed Michael Houser is currently on the taxi squad. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, a second-round pick in 2017, has started 8 of 10 games this season for the AHL's Rochester Americans.
Buffalo's power play went 0-for-2 against New York and is now 0-for-its-last-21. The Sabres went 1-for-3 on the penalty kill Monday.

What happened

Hutton had made just two saves when Julien Gauthier toppled onto him in the game's opening minutes and he was forced to leave the game. He was helped off the ice by the training staff, favoring his left leg as he exited through the Zamboni doors to his left.
Tokarski made eight saves in the first as the Sabres were outshot 10-5 in the period.
Buffalo's best chance came with under 2 minutes remaining when Jacob Bryson was stopped on a breakaway and drew a hooking penalty to put Buffalo on the power play with 1:34 left in the first. Bryson's shot was the Sabres' third of the period.
Kinkaid robbed Skinner twice in the first 1:14 of the second. Jacob Trouba hit the post for the Rangers moments after that second save.

Asplund opened the scoring at the 3:52 mark of the second period when he crashed the net and jammed the puck in on the short side. Asplund was called up from the taxi squad before the game.
New York tied things up at the 7:13 mark when Kakko put home his own rebound. He accepted a feed from Artemi Panarin from behind the net after Panarin won a battle off a faceoff in the Sabres zone.
With 9:21 left in the second and 4 seconds remaining on a 5-on-3 power play, Kreider redirected in a pass from Panarin to put the Rangers ahead.
They extended their lead to 3-1 when Fox popped in a rebound with 1:42 remaining. Fox kept driving to the next on the rush and was all alone to knock in the second chance on Mika Zibanejad's blast from the slot.
The Sabres rallied with a pair of goals early in the third period.
Cozens put Buffalo within one when he roofed a tight pass from Sam Reinhart 1:09 into the third period. The Sabres rookie made his return to the lineup after missing the past four games with an upper-body injury.
Skinner made it 3-3 at the 4:22 mark. He accepted a long stretch pass from Brandon Montour and beat Kinkaid high blocker, in just about the same spot Cozens scored the fourth of his career.
Kreider netted his second of the game when he scored on a rebound 5:47 into the third to give the Rangers a 4-3 edge.
Kakko buried an empty netter with 57.7 seconds remaining in regulation.

Roll the highlight film

Let's take another look at Skinner's goal that tied the game:

Worth mentioning

Kyle Okposo did not make the trip to New York due to an injury.
Sabres interim head coach Don Granato said Okposo sustained the injury during practice on Sunday. Okposo scored his first goal of the season against Boston last Thursday.
"We hope it's short term," Granato said before the game. "We think it will be, but still pending some information on that."

Coming up

The Sabres have back-to-back games on the road against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday's game can be seen on NBCSN. Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray will have the radio call on WGR 550 at 8 p.m.