BUFFALO, N.Y. — With no more games left against the teams ahead of them in the Metropolitan Division standings, if the Rangers are going to improve their position in the division race and try to get home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs, they are going to have to find ways of motivating themselves to bring their “A’’ game against teams that are behind them.
Friday night, against a Buffalo Sabres team desperate to hang in on the Eastern Conference wild-card chase, the Rangers once again got off to a slow start, falling behind by two goals in the first 30 minutes before fighting back to eventually force overtime. Ultimately, though, they weren’t able to complete the comeback as Jeff Skinner scored at 1:50 of the extra session to give the Sabres a 3-2 victory at KeyBank Center.
Skinner skated up the middle between Mika Zibanejad and Vladimir Tarasenko and beat Jaroslav Halak (31 saves) to win it.
