Recap: Rangers Bounce Back with 4-0 Win in Buffalo

After a rough start in a disappointing opening night at the Garden, the Rangers were upstate to pay the Buffalo Sabres a visit. With the same lineup and a little less rust on the skates, the Rangers got off to a great start, established an early lead and combined with a 36-save shutout from Igor Shesterkin, found a way to secure a 4-0 win for their first of the season.

A nice win to celebrate 300 career games played, congrats to Will Borgen on the milestone!

First Period

The Rangers were off to a much better start in game two of the season as they out-shot the Sabres 5-0 through the first five minutes of play. During which, the Rangers had a pair of really strong chances, one of which involving Artemi Panarin finding Aleixs Lafrenière all alone in front of Alex Lyon who came up big with the save. About two and a half minutes out from the midway point of the period, the Rangers headed to the power play as a great candidate for Keegan’s forgotten pack members series, Mason Geertsen, tripped Mika Zibanejad. 

The top power play unit looked strong for the Rangers, generating a good amount of chances but came up empty handed. Panarin stayed out for the whole two minutes, taking Matt Rempe’s place on the second power play unit. The sustained pressure continued as the team’s returned to even strength as the Rangers were up to twelve shots on goal in just ten minutes of play. 

With just over eight minutes to go, the Rangers finally picked up their first goal of the new season. Good possession by the second line resulted in a shot from far out from Panarin with Lafrenière netfront. Lafrenière was able to stick with the rebound and maneuver the bouncing puck around Lyon to make it a 1-0 game. 

As per my challenge from opening night that extended into game two, congrats to @NMHenry5 on X for correctly predicting the first Rangers goal of the 2025-26 season!

As the period closed out, the Rangers got a little sloppy in their own end but aside from that, it was overall a much better period than anything we saw in the season opener. Shots after twenty were 16-11 Rangers who had nearly thirty shot attempts, won 65% of the draws and were credited with four high danger chances.

Second Period

The Rangers kicked off the second by taking their first penalty of the night as Will Cuylle leg-tripped Peyton Krebs just thirty seconds in. Aside from a dangerous Noah Laba turnover, the Rangers did a good job of killing the man advantage to maintain their one goal lead. However, the Sabres were all of a sudden growing close to evening out the shots on goal tally, slightly turning the tide of the pace of play. 

About five minutes in, Adam Edstrom made a great play to send himself on a breakaway but Lyon stood strong, shutting down the scoring chance .

Two minutes later, the Sabres headed back to the power play as Urho Vaakanainen was called for interference. The Sabres came real close to tying this one up as Tage Thompson ripped a one timer off the post. On top of that, Josh Doan deflected a shot off the same post just as the Vaakanainen penalty was expiring. 

In the back half of the period, the Rangers went through a ton of line jumbling as Vincent Trocheck did not appear to be on the Rangers bench. It wasn't clear what happened to him but he is still wearing a full face shield as a result of a preseason injury. With about five and a half to go, Braden Schneider went after Jason Zucker after a frozen puck as Zucker was jabbing at Shesterkin a little too much for anyone’s liking. This led to two minutes of 4-on-4 play that didn’t amount to a whole lot. 

With two minutes to go, another scrum broke out in front of the Rangers net with Jason Zucker at the front of it, this time tied up with Will Borgen. That resulted in the Rangers going back to the penalty kill as Borgen was called for roughing—ripping the helmet off of Zucker. The Rangers were successful on the penalty kill for the third time that period as they maintained their one goal lead heading into the second intermission. 

Quite the change of pace in the second as the Rangers were now being out-shot 24-21 to Buffalo. The three penalties really turned the tide as it was all Buffalo in the middle stanza. Igor Shesterkin was at the top of his game which played role in keeping things close.

Third Period

The Rangers would be down a man for the rest of the game as it was announced that Trocheck's night was put to an early end with an upper-body injury. 

Just four seconds into the period, the Rangers got a second crack at the power play as Tage Thompson was called for high sticking. With Trocheck out, this allowed for Lafrenière to bump up to the top power play unit. Despite moving the puck around well at the start, the Rangers came out of the man advantage shotless as they were now 0-for-2 on the power play.

About five minutes later, the Rangers were back to the penalty kill as Cuylle took down Josh Doan in the neutral zone, his second tripping infraction of the night. Between Igor being Igor and the Sabres not being an overly threatening offensive team, the Rangers continued to have success on the penalty kill and nearing the midway point of the period, were back to the power play as Justin Danforth tied up Vaakanainen along the boards. Alas, another two minutes came and went without anything to show for.

Finally, with just over five minutes to go, the Rangers were able to find the back of the net again. An outstanding little one touch pass from Adam Fox at the point dished it over to Carson Soucy who walked a shot in that sailed past Lyon to extend the Rangers lead 2-0. Credit to Panarin and Rempe for forechecking hard to force the puck back to Fox at the point.

Just a few minutes later, another simple forecheck resulted in a shot for Braden Schneider at the point that took a redirect off the stick of J.T. Miller for his first goal of the season as well as his first goal as captain of the New York Rangers. 3-0. Shortly afterwards, Adam Fox sent the puck into the Sabres' empty net from the opposite end of the ice to make it a 4-0 game.

That would do it in Buffalo as the Rangers stayed the course and finished strong in a much better showing than opening night. Still lots of work to be done and now some concern with Trocheck being injured but all in all, a solid first win of the season for the Rangers.

They'll be back at it on the road Saturday night for a rematch with the Pittsburgh Penguins.