Hockey Wires

New York Rangers (13-9-2) at Buffalo Sabres (9-14-3), 7 p.m. (ET)

 

The Sports Network

The surging New York Rangers will continue a four-game road trip when they renew hostilities with the Buffalo Sabres in Tuesday's battle at First Niagara Center.

This marks the first meeting between the clubs since March 3 when Buffalo's Patrick Kaleta earned a five-game suspension with a vicious hit from behind on Rangers forward Brad Richards. Kaleta will serve the fourth game of his ban on Tuesday, while Richards has returned to action after missing two tests with body soreness following the hit.

New York won that meeting at Madison Square Garden, 3-2, in a shootout, giving the Rangers victories in four of the last five encounters in this series. The Blueshirts also have won two straight and three of their last four in Buffalo.

The Rangers enter Tuesday having won five of their last six games and that stretch includes the recent win over the Sabres. New York followed up Friday's 3-2 home setback against Ottawa with a 4-1 decision Sunday afternoon in Washington.

Brian Boyle and Ryan Callahan scored 41 seconds apart in the second period to lead New York to Sunday's triumph in D.C. Richards and Derek Stepan supplied the other goals for the Rangers, while seldom-used backup Martin Biron made 28 saves. Biron made his fourth start of the season and improved to 2-1-1.

"We get him in a game, he wins us the game, plus it gives (Henrik Lundqvist) a day off, plus a full day off tomorrow. Really happy how it played out here," New York head coach John Tortorella said about Biron.

No. 1 netminder Henrik Lundqvist will be back between the pipes on Tuesday and is 11-9-2 in his career against Buffalo.

New York is 4-4-1 as the visiting team and will close its road trip with stops in Winnipeg and Pittsburgh.

The Sabres will try to halt a four-game losing streak after dropping a 3-2 decision in Philadelphia on Sunday. The Flyers jumped out to a 2-0 lead early and were able to keep Buffalo at bay for the remainder of the game.

"We obviously started off on the wrong foot," said Sabres head coach Ron Rolston. "That's more my responsibility, I've got to do a better job there. We've got to be ready to go, we didn't have enough urgency or desperation off the start."

Brian Flynn and Jochen Hecht each lit the lamp for the skidding Sabres, while Ryan Miller finished with 25 saves in defeat.

The Sabres could be without forward Tyler Ennis, who was banged up after taking a hit from Philadelphia's Wayne Simmonds. Ennis missed practice Monday and is questionable for this matchup with the Rangers.

Buffalo is 4-6-1 as the host this season. The Sabres are beginning a two-game homestand Tuesday before ending it Saturday against Ottawa.

Read more Hockey Wires stories from the Miami Herald

Join the
Discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere on the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

The Miami Herald uses Facebook's commenting system. You need to log in with a Facebook account in order to comment. If you have questions about commenting with your Facebook account, click here.

Have a news tip? You can send it anonymously. Click here to send us your tip - or - consider joining the Public Insight Network and become a source for The Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald.

Hide Comments

This affects comments on all stories.

Cancel OK

  • Videos

  • Quick Job Search

Enter Keyword(s) Enter City Select a State Select a Category