Tonight the Sabres came out of the 4 Nations break with one of their best game of the season, beating the Rangers 8-2 at home after a fast 4-0 start in the first period, playing great hockey on both ends of the ice.
Jack Quinn opened the scoring 1:46 into the game on a nice shot, stealing the puck, then fanning on the shot, which ended up going off Shesterkin’s pad and into the goal. With 8:02 left in the first, Jordan Greenway did a ton of work by himself, took a shot from the top of the slot, and scored with it going off Dahlin through traffic to make it 2-0 Buffalo. Tage Thompson, who was left off the Team USA roster at the 4 Nations, made it 3-0 with 4:16 left in the first period, taking the puck through the Rangers defense right on the red line through the crease and past Shesterkin into the net. With 2:27 left, the Sabres continued their dominant first period on a tip in from Alex Tuch in front on a shot from Ryan McLeod, beating Shesterkin five hole to put Buffalo up 4-0. Rasmus Dahlin kept the momentum going on a beautiful shot on the power play with 1:39 left in the shot, perfectly placed on the far post to extend the lead to 5-0 Sabres and chase Shesterkin out of the net. What a great start for the Sabres to come off the 4 Nations break.
The Rangers got on the board 5:29 into the second period, with Chris Kreider tipping in Panarin’s shot, left all alone next to the net to make it 5-1 on the power play. As a Sabres penalty expired, Mika Zibanejad made it 5-2, tipping in an Adam Fox shot in similar fashion to the Kreider goal, cashing my over early. Not the best period for Buffalo, but we did have some decent chances on Quick and still got a three goal lead heading into the third.
Tage Thompson scored his second goal of the game, making it 6-2 just 3:47 into the third, as the puck squeaked past Jonathan Quick on what looked like it would be an easy save. The Sabres kept pouring it on, with Ryan McLeod, scoring on a great shot to make it a 7-2 game as he got past the Rags defense with 14:20 left in the game. With 35.7 seconds left in the game, Henri Jokiharju added to the blowout to make it 8-2 on a beautiful bar down shot.
FINAL: Sabres 8, Rangers 2
Dominant performance for Buffalo tonight with a great win! Getting off to a hot start early and keeping that energy level going through the game, sustained a huge win today. I thought we played great on both ends of the ice, showing some solid signs to come out of the break. Let’s see how much we can keep this going in the second half of the season and how close we get to ending up 5 points out of the playoffs.
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