New York Rangers’ last second goal defeats Buffalo 5-4

New York Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren scored the game-winner with .07 seconds left to cap a crazy 5-4 victory over the Buffalo Sabres.

The New York Rangers and Buffalo Sabres appeared to be ready to take their contest into overtime Sunday night.

Chris Kreider had the puck pinned in the Saber’s end with a little over five seconds remaining when the puck found its way onto his stick. He then chipped the puck to a pinching Adam Fox who feed it to Mika Zibanejead.

All the while Ryan Lindgren skated his way to the right of the Buffalo’s goaltender, the only one who saw him was Zibanejead who feed him a perfect tape-to-tape pass that Lindgren easily put into the net, sending the Garden faithful into a frenzy on Hockey Fights Cancer night.

The win was the 11th for the Blueshirts (11-4-03) and was their fifth win in their last six games (5-1).

Sneaking In

Lindgren and Adam Fox were at the blueline and decided to sneak into the offensive zone as they both realized there wasn’t much time should the Sabres get possession of the puck to skate into the Ranger’s end.

“Me and ‘Foxy’ are standing up kind of back towards the point and look up and see the clock and kind of realize with five seconds left there’s probably not going to be enough time for them to bring it all the way down, so you just keep sneaking in,” Lindgren said to Heather Engel. “The puck got to Foxy, who kicked it out to Mika. Obviously, a great play by him. Just a great win.”

Artemi panarin had another three-assist game and was named the number one star of the game. The Rangers and Sabers combined to score four goals in the second period in a span of 1:22. The two teams scored three goals each in that stanza taking a 4-4 game into the second intermission.

Georgiev Continues to Struggle

Alexandar Georgiev started the game for the Rangers, but it was Igor Shesterin who led the team onto the ice for the start of the third period.

Georgiev seemed to be fighting the puck off most of the night. The Sabres’ fourth goal of the game and third of the second period by Rasmus Dahlin seemed to be the last straw for head coach Gerard Gallant.

Shesterkin made four saves in the third period winning his ninth game of the year.

Notes (Via NYR PR)

Ryan Lindgren scored the game-winning goal with 0.7 seconds left in the game, marking the fourth time in franchise history that the Rangers have scored a go-ahead goal in the final second of a third period. The last to do so was Brad Richards in 2011 against the Phoenix Coyotes. It is the 24th time in NHL history a team has won a game in the final second of the third period. Lindgren became the fourth defenseman in NHL history to score a go-ahead goal in the final second of regulation.

The Rangers pushed their home win streak to five games with a win tonight, their longest win streak at home since Dec. 22, 2019-Jan. 13, 2020.

New York recorded at least one point for the ninth time in its last 11 games (7-2-2) and has at least one point in 14 of its 18 games this season.

The Rangers won their third-straight game against the Sabres and have extended their point streak to eight games against them (7-0-1). In their last 18 matchups dating back to Feb. 2, 2017, the Rangers have only lost three times in regulation to Buffalo (14-3-1). At MSG, New York has won five straight and nine of 10 games against the Sabres. In their last 16 games at home against Buffalo, the Rangers are 13-3-0 for 26 points.

The Rangers had 12 different players record a point tonight, the most players to record a point in a single game this season.

The Rangers and Sabres combined for four goals in a span of 1:22, marking the fastest four goals in a game since March 21, 2017 (SJS at MIN: 1:03).

New York scored three goals in the second period tonight, the third time this season they have scored three second-period goals. The Rangers have 19 second-period goals this season, tied for the 10th most in the NHL.

Tonight was the fourth occurrence this season in which the Rangers scored five or more goals in a game.

Artemi Panarin recorded his 50th career three-point game with three assists. Since entering the NHL in 2015-16, his 50 three-point games are tied with Patrick Kane for the third-most in the NHL. Tonight marked the 11th time since joining the Rangers that Panarin has recorded three or more assists in a game, trailing only Connor McDavid (16) for the most among all players over that span. Panarin has recorded points in four of his last six games (2G-6A). Tonight was the 20th time in his career that Panarin has faced the Sabres and he has points in 15 of those matchups. Panarin has points in six of his last seven games (3G-10A) against Buffalo.

Chris Kreider scored his team-leading 13th goal of the season and eighth on the power-play, trailing Leon Draisaitl (9) for the most PPG’s in the NHL. Since 2019-20, Kreider’s 28 power-play tallies are second in the NHL to Draisaitl (40) Kreider has points in four of his last six games against Buffalo (3G-2A) and seven of his last 10 games against them (6G-2A).

 Adam Fox notched his 13th and 14th assists of the season, giving him the most assists among defensemen in the NHL. Fox extended his assist/point streak to seven games against the Sabres (1G-13A).

Ryan Strome prolonged his point streak to six games (1G-6A) with an assist tonight, his longest point streak since his 11-game streak from March 13-April 1, 2021 (2G-14A). It marks the third time in his career that Strome has had a point streak of six-plus games.

Mika Zibanejad registered an assist on the game-winning goal, giving him five assists in his last six games. Zibanejad has at least one point in six of his last seven games against the Sabres.

Kaapo Kakko tied his career-long point streak of four games (3G-2A) originally set Apr. 6-11, 2021. In each of his last five games, Kakko is a plus-1 or better and in total is a plus-6 since Nov. 13.

 Ryan Lindgren scored his second goal of the season and first career game-winning goal with the tally with 0.7 seconds left to play.

Jacob Trouba scored his second goal of the season and tallied his fifth point (2G-3A) in his last six games.

Filip Chytil recorded his 75th career NHL point in his 201st NHL game. Chytil is the 89th Czech-Republic-born skater in NHL history to tally 75-plus points. Chytil has three points (1G-2A) in his past five games.

 Ryan Reaves skated in his 700th NHL game tonight and recorded his first point as a Ranger (assist). Reaves became the 20th skater from the 2005 draft class and second from the fifth round (Darren Helm) to skate in 700 games. Reaves has split the 700 games between St. Louis (419), Vegas (209), Pittsburgh (58), and New York (14). Since the NHL began tracking hits in the early 2000’s, Reaves is one of 11 players in the NHL who have played in as many games (700) and recorded as many hits (2,387) as Reaves has.

 K’Andre Miller scored his second goal of the season tonight, giving him his 15th career point. Miller scored his first NHL goal against Buffalo on January 26, 2021.

Barclay Goodrow earned his 101st career point with an assist tonight. Goodrow has three goals and five assists for eight points this season, one of six players on New York with five-plus assists.

The Ranger’s next game will be at the new UBS arena when they visit the New York Islanders on Wednesday night, 7 p.m.