This time, the Rangers got the break. This time, Buffalo somehow failed to even get a shot on net off an overtime 2-on-0. This time, the one overtime shot the Rangers got hit the back of the net.
"We were able to stop the bleeding," Martin Biron, who got the emergency start when Henrik Lundqvist reported to the Garden feeling ill, said after the Blueshirts' 3-2 victory over the Sabres last night at the Garden. "After losing the first two on this homestand, we had to have this one."
They got it when Artem Anisimov pounced on a loose puck in the slot and sent a wrist shot past Jhonas Enroth at 1:32 for the victory right after the Thomas Vanek-Derek Roy combination botched its chance at the other end of the ice. It was the second of the night for Anisimov, who had endured a nine-game drought.
AP
YEAH! Artem Anisimov (center) accepts congratulations from teammates after scoring the game-wining goal in overtime of the Rangers' 3-2 victory over the Sabres last night at the Garden. It was Anisimov's second goal of the game.
"The first couple of games without a goal I put pressure on myself, but it was too much and hurt me," the maturing sophomore pivot said. "After that, I knew I needed to relax so I just went out to play hockey."
Marian Gaborik played hockey for the first time since Oct. 15 and was reasonably sharp after a 12-game absence, but though the match was an Artem success it was hardly an artistic smash, with both teams playing a dump and chase game that funneled toward each net.
"I felt better than I expected for the first game," said Gaborik, who had three shots on net in 18:40. "It was a huge win for us with the way we've struggled in our building."
Inferior records at home (18-17-6) and in overtime (1-7) combined to keep the Rangers out of the playoffs last year. This victory lifted the Blueshirts to 3-5-1 at the Garden with the Oilers due in on Sunday to conclude the four-game homestand, and to 1-1 in overtime.
"I think we deserved to win the last two games also," Anisimov said, alluding to the defeats to St. Louis and Washington. "Winning at home is so important."
The Rangers played in fits and starts. They grinded and stuck with it, but the recklessness that marked much of the opening month seemed absent. There was little momentum generated from one shift to the next.
The reunited Gaborik-Erik Christensen-Alex Frolov combination was less than the sum of its parts, and the newly formed Sean Avery-Derek Stepan-Todd White line generated little.
"It wasn't a pretty game to watch," Gaborik said. "But everybody chipped in."
Fedotenko jammed in a puck from the crease for a 1-0 lead in the first before the Sabres tied at 15:33 of the second when Tyler Ennis poked one in. But when Anisimov converted Brandon Dubinsky's centering feed at 19:12, it appeared that the Rangers would escape a sloppy second, Mike Grier tied it with 2.9 seconds remaining.
"A bummer," Gaborik said.
"We were brutal the whole second," coach John Tortorella said. "We lost battles. Our second period stunk."
Biron, who has given the Rangers three strong games in four starts, held his team in through the period in which the Blueshirts failed on an extended power play of 3:21 that included a 39-second two-man advantage on which the team failed to get a shot on net.
Those types of failures almost invariably spell doom, but not last night, when the Rangers got a break and took advantage of it.
larry.brooks@nypost.com
Nypost.com
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