The Good: Carl Hagelin scored the 10th goal of his rookie campaign on a fluky goal, shot along the goal line which pinballed around Miller's stick and pads and through his five hole at 7:38 of the second period to tie the game at 1. The Rangers tied the game at 2, five minutes into the third period, on a beautiful head-man pass from Del Zotto to Gaborik, beating Ryan Miller high glove for his 29th. When those high risk passes from Del Zotto connect, there's a good chance Gaborik is there to put the puck in the back of the net. Ryan Callahan came through with the GWG in OT at 2:59 for his 24th of the season and 100th of his career, deking around a sprawling Patrick Kaleta and depositing a wrister under Miller's armpit to send the fans home happy.
The Bad: Drew Stafford opened the scoring for the Sabres at 13:29 of the first period with some sloppy backchecking and defense by both Stepan and Del Zotto when they left Stafford wide open in front of Lundqvist. Stafford got his second of the game on the power play just 44 seconds into the third period, when he was the recipient of some nifty passing between Pominville, Roy and Vanek down the ice while the Rangers could do little but watch.
The Ugly: To say the Rangers needed two points badly tonight is quite the understatement. With the trade winds circling around the Rangers, which is quite uncommon for any team with a huge lead in their conference entering the month of March. Whether the rumors or whispers are affecting the team or not, or if this is just part of the ebbs and flows of an 82 game season, the Rangers needed tonights win not only to get off this mini skid, but to send confidence and good feelings back around the locker room again.
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