Today was a big day for the Sabres franchise with the hopeful young goalie of our future, Devon Levi making his first NHL start, all while Buffalo has an outside shot at a Wild Card spot. He was great in his first win, a 3-2 overtime win over the Rangers.
The Sabres scored the first goal of the game tonight, which is always good as JJ Peterka on a beautiful play up front got it past Halak 11:20 into the game to give the Sabres a 1-0 lead. Very good first period for the Sabres tonight and great in front of Levi, only having to make two saves as on the other end of the ice, the Sabres offense put a ton of pressure on the Rangers and sustained that, going into the first intermission up 1-0. We dominated the first, outshooting the Rags 11-2 and having seven scoring chances while limiting New York to just one.
7:39 into the second period, Jordan Greenway powered through and scored one handed with an awesome goal to make it 2-0 Sabres. The Rangers finally got on the board with 7:43 left in the second period, the first goal that Devon Levi’s given up in his career, with Kaapo Kakko tipping the puck into the net on a rebound after Levi made a pretty nice save on the initial shot. Another good period for Buffalo, playing well again in front of Levi, up 2-0 going into the third period.
With 10:15 remaining in the game, the Rangers tied up the game at two with Fox pushing the puck in five hole with no one other than Fox having any idea where the puck was, sitting between Levi’s pads. Without any other goals in an entertaining end of regulation with the , onto overtime for the second game in a row for the Sabres and the second in two games against the Rangers this year.
Incredible individual effort going through Zibanejad and Tarasenko, 1:50 into overtime…“Skinner, Skinner, overtime winnerrrrrrrr” what a call from Dan Dunleavy as Whitney Houston played throughout KeyBank Center.
Final: Sabres 3, Rangers 2 (OT)
The first win of Devon Levi’s career and hopefully just the first of MANY for this kid. He made 31 saves on the 33 shots he faced, 19 of which were in the third period. The first star of the game with a .939 save percentage.
What a fun night. Let’s go Sabres.
Back at it again tomorrow night against the Flyers.
Please follow me:
Instagram: @atownszone
Twitter: @atownszone
TikTok: @atownszone
If you like the site and my work, share it with your friends!
… and tell Dave Portnoy to hire me…
A Town's Zone 
One thought on “Sabres vs. Rangers: 3/31/23 – Game Reactions/Recap”