Defenseman Rasmus Dahlin and Tage Thompson had two goals and an assist each as the host Buffalo Sabres crushed the New York Rangers 8-2 on Saturday.
Ryan McLeod also scored twice while Jack Quinn and defenseman Henri Jokiharju added goals for the Sabres. Jason Zucker had three assists and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 26 saves.
Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad scored for the Rangers. J.T. Miller had two assists and Igor Shesterkin stopped 11 of 16 shots before being replaced by Jonathan Quick after Dahlin’s second goal with 1:39 left in the first period. Quick made 14 saves.
Buffalo scored five goals in the first period, all against Shesterkin.
The Sabres’ Jordan Greenway, back after missing 23 games with an upper-body injury, made his presence felt immediately.
Greenway’s hit in the neutral zone created a turnover that led to Quinn’s goal that opened the scoring 1:46 into the game. Quinn whipped a wrist shot past Shesterkin on a 2-on-1 rush. Ten minutes later, Greenway picked up the puck in the left wing corner of the New York zone, took it to the right point and his shot was tipped in by Dahlin with 8:02 left in the opening period.
The Sabres scored three times in the final 4:28 of the first.
Thompson bulled his way out of the right corner to the front of the net and backhanded the puck in at 15:32. McLeod scored with 2:27 remaining in the first period and Dahlin got his second goal with 1:39 left.
Dahlin has 75 goals for his seven-year career – all with the Sabres — and moved ahead of Mike Ramsey into second place on Buffalo’s all-time goals list for defensemen. Rangers associate head coach Phil Housley is first with 178 (1982-90).
Kreider put New York on the board with a power-play goal 5:29 into the second period. It was Kreider’s 116th career power-play goal, which ties him for the Rangers franchise record with Camille Henry. Zibanejad scored 8:35 into the middle period.
Thompson got his second goal 3:47 into the third, McLeod added his second 5:40 into the period and Jokiharju scored with 36 seconds left.
