Defenseman Ryan Lindgren scored the dramatic, tiebreaking goal with one second remaining to lift the New York Rangers over the visiting Buffalo Sabres 5-4 Sunday night in a game that featured a six-goal second period.
Lindgren capped a dominating third period that saw the Rangers outshoot the Sabres 13-4 when he fired a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle into the vacated left side of the net when Buffalo goaltender Aaron Dell was caught out of position.
The play started with Chris Kreider prying the puck away from Buffalo's Tage Thompson in the right corner behind the Buffalo net. He moved the puck to defenseman Adam Fox, who quickly dished to Mika Zibanejad, and the puck reached Lindgren just before the buzzer sounded.
Lindgren's dramatic goal gave the Rangers a fifth straight home win on a night in which they overcame three one-goal deficits.
Kreider scored his 13th goal in the final minute of the opening period during a power play before teammate Jacob Trouba scored 8:03 into the second to make the score 2-2. Kaapo Kakko and defenseman K'Andre Miller scored in a span of 82 seconds in the second.
The Rangers' Artemi Panarin collected three assists and Fox set up two goals.
Buffalo's Rasmus Asplund scored a power-play goal in the first, and teammate Vinnie Hinostroza finished a breakaway early in the second.
Thompson and Dahlin struck 15 seconds apart during the wild sequence in the second as the Sabres dropped to 2-7-1 in their past 10 games.
New York's Igor Shesterkin made four saves in the third period after Alexandar Georgiev had allowed four goals on 18 shots in the game.
Dell allowed five goals on 36 shots.
After the teams traded power-play goals late in the first period, Buffalo went up 2-1 after Hinostroza stole the puck from New York defenseman Jarred Tinordi deep in the offensive zone. The Rangers tied it on a delayed penalty when Trouba lifted a cross-ice from Panarin over Dell from close range.
Kakko made it 3-2 New York with 7:53 remaining by cutting to the net and finishing off a give-and-go with Ryan Strome.
Buffalo forged a 3-3 tie on Thompson's wrist shot from the left circle that sailed over Georgiev's left shoulder with 7:03 remaining and then took a 4-3 lead on Dahlin's slap shot from the right point 15 seconds later.
Buffalo's third lead of the night lasted 17 seconds as the Rangers tied the game again on Miller's 58-foot wrist shot from the right point.
--Field Level Media
Buffalo | NY Rangers | |
Rasmus Dahlin 2 | Points | Artemi Panarin 3 |
Rasmus Dahlin 1 | Goals | Kaapo Kakko 1 |
Rasmus Dahlin 1 | Assists | Artemi Panarin 3 |
Rasmus Asplund 1 | Power Play Goals | Chris Kreider 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Aaron Dell .861 | Save Percentage | Igor Shesterkin 1.000 |
Aaron Dell 31 | Saves | Alexandar Georgiev 14 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Buffalo | 22 | 4 | 1-3 | 0-1 | 2 | 28 |
NY Rangers | 36 | 5 | 1-1 | 2-3 | 6 | 22 |