Carter Hutton made 37 saves while Jimmy Vesey collected a goal and an assist against his former team as the Buffalo Sabres held on for a 3-2 victory over the host New York Rangers on Friday night.

The Sabres beat the Rangers for only the second time in the past nine meetings and also won for the second time in their past seven contests overall (2-4-1). Buffalo rebounded from a 4-3 home shootout loss to the league-worst Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.

Zemgus Girgensons and Sam Reinhart scored in the first two periods for the Sabres. Vesey, who spent the first three seasons of his career with the Rangers, had the secondary assist on Reinhart's goal, and Jack Eichel collected two assists.

Hutton made most of his saves after a quiet first 40 minutes. After facing 16 shots in the opening two periods, Hutton finished with 21 stops in the third and came within 2:53 of his 14th career shutout.

Mika Zibanejad scored New York's first goal. Chris Kreider added a power-play goal with the extra attacker for the Rangers, who entered with seven wins in their previous 11 games.

Backup goaltender Alexandar Georgiev made 25 saves for the Rangers.

The Sabres went ahead with 9:34 left in the opening period when Girgensons made a move around Rangers defenseman Marc Staal and cut to the crease, where he slid the puck into the vacated right side of the net.

Buffalo made it 2-0 with 4:34 to go in the second. Reinhart finished off a partial breakaway by flipping a backhander from the right circle over Georgiev's stick after getting the pass from Eichel following a Rangers turnover.

Moments after Eichel hit the post, Vesey made it 3-0 with 8:04 remaining in the third period. Eichel caught the Rangers on a poor line change, got through two defenders and slid the puck past Georgiev.

Zibanejad made it 3-1 with when he finished off Artemi Panarin's slick backhanded pass through the slot by lifting the puck over Hutton's left pad.

Kreider scored on a rebound with 1:40 remaining, and the Rangers got the goal after officials reviewed the sequence and determined the puck went under Hutton.

--Field Level Media