Whew! A huge rebound game as Lafrenière wins it in overtime

No team needed a win on Thursday more than the New York Rangers.  It took overtime, but they were able to do it.  They withstood a hot goalie and a two comebacks by the Sabres to win the game on the most anticipated goal of the season, Alexis Lafrenière’s first NHL goal.

If there was ever a recipe for disaster, this was it. The Rangers outplayed, outshot and outhustled the Sabres, but despite all of that, the Rangers still let the lead slip away in the third period.  This time the Blueshirts didn’t let the tying goal get them down and fought their way to overtime. That’s when Colin Blackwell and Lafrenière took over.

The positives that came out of this game were numerous.  Lafrenière got the lack of a point off his back, Igor Shesterkin was rock solid in net,  Artemi Panarin was his usual excellent self, that excellence extended to Strome, and an underrated Colin Blackwell contributed once more.

That said, if they hadn’t pulled out the win, we would be revisiting the mantra we have heard for two weeks about protecting leads, getting contributions from the top players and finding a way to win.  The way things have been going, most fans would have been satisfied with one point.

David Quinn was positively giddy after the game despite blowing a lead in the third period once again.  “I thought we had a really good game, I thought we kept coming, we didn’t get fazed by the moment…you just have to keep playing, you can’t let that deter you from the moment and I thought we did, we shook it off.”

Quinn had called out his top players and the Panarin line responded.  The Strome-Panarin-Blackwell line was dominant and accounted for the two goals in regulation. Panarin had a goal and an assist, Strome scored a goal and Blackwell assisted on the winning goal.   Mika Zibanejad showed signs of coming out of his funk with some excellent opportunities and teaming him with Lafrenière and Buchnevich seemed to work well.

Very quietly, Igor Shesterkin had an excellent game.  He wasn’t at fault on the two Buffalo goals and he made all of the stop he needed to, none more important than a good stop on a Victor Olofsson shot two minutes into the game. He made 23 saves.

But in the end, it all came down to Lafrenière who had a very impressive night. He had four shots on goal and just missed a game winner in regulation when he couldn’t elevate the puck over Linus Ullmark who made a fabulous stop.   It is going to be hard to take him off the top line if he keep playing this way.  That means Chris Krieder will remain on the third line, deservedly so.

Lafrenière said he wasn’t surprised to get the overtime shift. “I was not surprised. I was ready to go. I played a good game and I was ready. I took my chance and it went in.”

His thoughts about his first goal being an overtime game winner. “It’s pretty crazy, an overtime game winning goal, it’s really special and I’ll never forget this moment for sure.”