Solid Team Effort Gives Sabres Victory, NHL Scores

By ESPN

 After getting just their second win in eight games, the Buffalo Sabres credited the victory to a solid team effort.

Evander Kane and Justin Bailey scored 1:42 apart around the first intermission, leading the Sabres to a 4-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Tuesday night. Zemgus Girgensons and Jack Eichel also scored, and Anders Nilsson stopped 24 shots to help the Sabres improve to 2-4-3 in their last eight.

"There's a lot of areas where we did well in the game tonight in terms of how we want to play," Buffalo coach Dan Bylsma said. "Our defense did a simple but good job with their execution with the puck and their moving the puck north, getting the puck up to our forwards. It was probably our best game in the third period with the lead playing the way we need to play."

Sam Reinhart had two assists, extending his career-best points streak to seven games and giving him two goals and seven assists in that stretch.

Buffalo has beaten the Rangers in three straight meetings -- including twice this season -- after losing the previous nine.

"We played a pretty simple game for 60 minutes and had success," Eichel said. "At times this season, we've gotten away from our game. You can see in the third period, we didn't really give them much at all. A lot of pucks were north and in their zone and it seemed like we played with it in their zone."

Nick Holden scored and Henrik Lundqvist made 15 saves for the Rangers, who were trying for their first four-game winning streak since a five-game run Oct. 30 to Nov. 6.

New York trailed 3-0 early in the second period before picking up its intensity. Holden got the Rangers on the scoreboard with 4:05 remaining in the middle period as he took a pass from J.T. Miller and fired a slap shot past Nilsson for his eighth of the season.

The Sabres restored their three-goal lead on the power play at 1:10 of the third. Reinhart sent a pass from the left faceoff dot to Eichel, who was streaking to the net and poked it in for his seventh.

New York didn't get its first shot of the third period until there was only 5:28 left.

"They kind of came out hard in the second (period), pushed us back a little bit," Nilsson said. "We scored a goal early and they got one late, but came out of the second period fine. And it was fun to stand back during the third and see the way we play, the way we shut the door and shut them down."

Tuesday, January 3 Scoreboard

Buffalo 4, New York Rangers 1

Washington 6, Toronto 5 (OT)

New Jersey 3, Carolina 1

Columbus 3, Edmonton 1

Winnipeg 6, Tampa Bay 4

Montreal 2, Nashville 1 (OT)

Los Angeles 2, San Jose 1 (OT)

Wednesday, January 4 Schedule (All Times Central)

Winnipeg at Florida, 6 p.m.

New York Rangers at Philadelphia, 7 p.m.

Montreal at Dallas, 7 p.m.

Colorado at Calgary, 9 p.m.

Arizona at Vancouver, 9 p.m.

Detroit at Anaheim, 9:30 p.m.