Buffalo, NY – Marcus Foligno scored a pair of goals and Jhonas Enroth turned in a strong substitute start between the pipes, with the pair leading the Buffalo Sabres to a 3-1 win over the New York Rangers at First Niagara Center.
Filling in for an ill Ryan Miller, Enroth stopped 32-of-33 shots to earn his first NHL victory since Nov. 26, 2011 and enable the Sabres to halt a four- game losing streak.
Miller was held out of the contest due to a sinus infection.
Thomas Vanek also had a goal for Buffalo, with Andrej Sekera recording two assists in the triumph.
"We've had leads and lost them so this was nice to put together," said Foligno. "We really played a 60-minute game and hopefully we can build together from this."
Derek Stepan scored shorthanded for the Rangers' only goal, with Henrik Lundqvist registering 19 saves in New York's second loss in its past seven outings.
"I don't know what happened tonight," said Lundqvist. "They just kept coming at us and we couldn't do much to slow them down at either end of the ice."
After falling behind on Stepan's shorthanded tally 4:17 into the second period, the Sabres struck twice within a span of less than two minutes to forge ahead.
Foligno's first goal of the night came just 78 seconds after Stepan briefly put the Rangers in front, stuffing home Christian Ehrhoff's initial shot that went wide of the net and caromed right to the young forward stationed at the right post.
Vanek delivered the go-ahead score at the 7:20 mark of the middle session after outracing Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi for a pass off the boards from Jason Pominville and beating Lundqvist on a breakaway.
Enroth made the lead stand with an impressive 18-save effort in the third period, with Foligno giving the Sabres some additional breathing room by poking in a rebound of Sekera's long drive with just under 12 minutes to go.
After a scoreless first period that elapsed without a penalty being called, Buffalo got the game's initial power play 2:30 into the second via a tripping call on the Rangers' Darroll Powe. However, a giveaway led to a 2-on-1 rush between New York's Ryan Callahan and Stepan, who received his captain's centering feed and flipped a shot over Enroth's glove to break the stalemate.
Game Notes
Enroth had dropped 10 consecutive decisions since defeating Washington during late November of last season ... Foligno had gone 20 straight games without lighting the lamp and produced his third career multi-goal effort ... Center Tyler Ennis also sat out the game for Buffalo as a result of an upper-body injury he sustained in Sunday's loss at Philadelphia. Defenseman Jordan Leopold, however, returned to the Sabres lineup after missing more than three weeks with a UBI .. Buffalo has now allowed a league-high five shorthanded goals this season ... Rangers forward Rick Nash had a six-game point streak snapped.
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