NEW YORK — Ryan Strome scored his first two goals this season and Henrik Lundqvist made 31 saves as New York snapped a five-game losing streak with a 6-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night.
The Rangers have been struggling since opening the season with two wins, followed by five defeats — the most recent in overtime to the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday.
Against the resurgent Sabres, who had eight wins in their first 10 games, the Rangers came out with pace and received goals from Artemi Panarin, Brett Howden and Strome in the opening period.
Panarin, who signed a seven-year $81.5 million free-agent contract last July, started the scoring with an unassisted goal at 11:41. Panarin corralled a loose puck along the right boards before swooping in and beating Sabres goaltender Carter Hutton for his fifth goal of the season. Panarin has points in his last three games and five of the team’s eight games.
Howden made it 2-0 when he tapped the puck past Hutton at 14:32 for his second goal this season. Strome added to the lead with a tip-in at 19:22 with assists to defensemen Brady Skjei and Tony DeAngelo. Strome’s goal represented the 200th point of his NHL career.
Defenseman Marco Scandella scored for Buffalo with an unassisted goal at 4:17 of the second before DeAngelo restored the three-goal lead with his third goal in two games at 13:20. Skjei and Pavel Buchnevich assisted on DeAngelo’s fourth goal of the season.
Buffalo’s Vladimir Sobotka narrowed the deficit to 4-2 when he scored at 19:11 of the second, beating Lundqvist for his first goal this season. Kyle Okposo and Marcus Johansson registered assists.
The teams traded chances in the third until Strome extended the lead to 5-2 with this second goal of the night, completing a two-on-one with Howden at 7:57 as the teams skated four-on-four.
Chris Kreider completed the scoring with his first of the season at 18:44 of the third.
ISLANDERS 4, COYOTES 2: Anders Lee’s third-period goal was the eventual winner as New York beat visiting Arizona.
Derick Brassard and Josh Bailey also scored and Brock Nelson had two assists as the Islanders won their fifth consecutive game. Semyon Varlamov made 21 saves in his third win of the season.
Michael Grabner and Conor Garland scored for Arizona. Darcy Keumper made 18 saves as the Coyotes’ four-game winning streak was snapped. Jakob Chychrun had two assists.
BLUE JACKETS 4, HURRICANES 3: Cam Atkinson scored 3:28 into overtime to lift Columbus over visiting Carolina.
Atkinson tapped in a pass from Pierre-Luc Dubois to give the Blue Jackets a second straight win in a fourth consecutive overtime game.
The Blue Jackets scored twice in the second period to tie the score at 3.
Joonas Korpisalo stopped 21 shots and Ryan Murray had a goal — his first in 50 games dating to last season — and an assist for Columbus, which extended its point streak to a half dozen games. The Blue Jackets are 3-0-2 in their past six since a 2-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Oct. 11.
Dougie Hamilton, Ryan Dzingel and Sebastian Aho scored in the first period, and Petr Mrazek had 27 saves for Carolina, which has lost three straight.
SHARKS 4, CANADIENS 2: Evander Kane scored two power-play goals and the visiting San Jose snapped a two-game losing streak.
Kevin Labanc and Melker Karlsson also scored for the Sharks, playing the first game of a back-to-back set. Tomas Hertl had three assists.
The Sharks have won nine straight games against the Canadiens dating to March. 21, 2015.
Nick Cousins and Joel Armia scored for the Canadiens.
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