Buchnevich, Shesterkin lead Rangers to win over Sabres

NEW YORK — Pavel Buchnevich had a goal and an assist, Igor Shesterkin stopped 22 shots and the New York Rangers beat the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 on Tuesday night.

Chris Kreider and Alexis Lafreniere also scored for the Rangers, and Adam Fox had two assists. New York won for the fourth time in six games.

Shesterkin made eight saves in the first period, nine in the second and five in the third to beat the Sabres for the second time and improve to 5-7-1 on the season.

Sam Reinhart and Tobias Rieder scored for Buffalo, which has lost four straight (0-3-1) and nine of 11 (2-8-1). Carter Hutton finished with 16 saves and fell to 1-6-1 this year.

Neither team had a lot of chances in the third period. The Rangers managed just three shots on goal over the first 10 minutes, while the Sabres had two.

Buffalo pulled Hutton for an extra skater with about 1:40 remaining, but couldn’t get the tying goal.

ISLANDERS 2, DEVILS 1

NEWARK, N.J. — Semyon Varlamov made 28 saves and came within 14 seconds of his fourth shutout, and the red-hot New York Islanders beat the slumping Devils 2-1 in New Jersey’s first home game with fans in almost a year.

Rookie Oliver Wahlstrom broke a scoreless tie with a wicked wrist shot early in the third period. Anders Lee knocked in his own rebound just under seven minutes later for the New York, which is 9-2-2 in its last 13.

Varlamov lost his shutout bid with 13.2 seconds to play when Miles Wood scored with the Devils’ net empty. The Islanders were trying for their second straight shutout after Ilya Sorokin blanked Pittsburgh 2-0 on Sunday.

Aaron Dell made 18 saves in his second start for New Jersey, which has lost six of seven. Pavel Zacha had his current NHL-leading 10game point streak snapped.