Sabres rally past Rangers in 3rd period, take hold of 1st place in Atlantic

NEW YORK -- The Buffalo Sabres regained sole possession of first place in the Atlantic Division by scoring three goals in the third period for a 5-3 win against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.

"It's a tight race right there for first in the Atlantic," Sabres forward Alex Tuch said. "We want to do whatever we can to try to increase our, I guess, lead now. I guess we're in first now, but obviously two really good teams chasing us. Just want to stack up some wins, get some points, continue to push and get ready for the playoffs."

Buffalo was in a three-way tie with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens entering the night. But Tuch, Jason Zucker and Zach Benson scored in the third period, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen finished with 17 saves to lift the Sabres ahead of the Lightning and Canadiens.

The Sabres (48-23-8), who hadn't been in first place by themselves since April 1, have three games remaining. Tampa Bay and Montreal, both off Wednesday, each have four left.

"It feels like we've been in a tight race since December," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "A tight race to get in the picture, then a tight race to move up the standings, and now it's a tight race to stay up the standings. Our division has been incredibly tough. You look at the strings of games that Montreal put together. You look at Tampa Bay had a real nice run. And we're all sitting there together."

Benson scored twice, and Zucker and Ryan McLeod each had a goal and an assist.

Perhaps most important, though, the Sabres not only came back in the third period, they allowed the Rangers just one shot on goal, which came at 18:25 in a 6-on-5 situation with goalie Igor Shesterkin pulled for the extra skater.

"We decided to play our game," Zucker said. "We got pucks behind their 'D'. We kept it simple through our 'D' zone and neutral zone. We got pucks out and then we got them behind their 'D' and we played offense. The first two periods we were messing around with pucks a little bit too much in our zone. We were throwing pucks right through the middle of our slot coming out of the 'D' zone. Very uncharacteristic of us and they made us pay for it. We got back to our game."

Alexis Lafreniere scored twice, Adam Fox had a goal and an assist, and Shesterkin made 22 saves for the Rangers (33-37-9), who were already eliminated from playoff contention.

"I thought we played a pretty good game tonight against a real good team," Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. "We didn't get the result, but when you look at how the game was played, we felt really good about our overall team game. We had a lot of looks. We had a lot of scoring opportunities. We passed up others, especially in the third. But I really like our team game."

McLeod gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead 4:40 into the first period when he scored from the right face-off circle.

It was his first goal in 17 games since scoring on March 5.

"He came back to the bench and he looked right at me because he knows I've said, 'I need you to shoot it more often,' " Ruff said.

Benson made it 2-0 at 8:58 when Rasmus Dahlin's shot from the right point ricocheted off him and into the net.

The Rangers comeback started when Lafreniere scored his first goal on the power play at 19:21 to cut the Sabres' lead to 2-1.

He scored again at 2:57 of the second period, beating Luukkonen on a breakaway to make it 2-2.

Fox scored a power-play goal with a point shot through Lafreniere's netfront screen to give New York a 3-2 lead at 14:44 of the second.

The Rangers killed a pair of overlapping penalties, including 56 seconds of a 5-on-3 power play for the Sabres, to maintain the one-goal lead going into the third.

But Tuch evened it at 3-3 at 5:51 of the third period with a deflection of Peyton Krebs’ shot from the point.

"It's a sifter from the blue line," Sullivan said. "We got an opportunity to get in the shot lane. We don't. Then we don't get the stick at the netfront. Those are hard plays to defend. The best way to do it is if we can deny the shot. Then you don't have to defend the netfront."

Zucker gave Buffalo a 4-3 lead at 7:14 by collecting a rebound of McLeod's shot from the left point and tucking the puck around Shesterkin's outstretched left pad.

"I'm just trying to get it to the far side, make him move and see if something opens up," Zucker said. "At that point I realized I had a little bit more time. They lost coverage so I was lucky enough to get it around his pad and stuff it in."

Benson capped it with an empty-net goal at 18:45 for the 5-3 final.

"Huge," McLeod said. "We know the race that we're in and what we're playing for. Not our best, but we got the two points and that's all that matters now."

NOTES: The Sabres earned their 20th comeback win of the season, marking the second time in the past 15 years that they have recorded at least that many in a season. They had 22 in 2022-23, when they missed the playoffs by one point. … Fox extended his point streak to eight games (15 points; four goals, 11 assists).