The streaking and dare I say the hottest team, not just in the Eastern Conference, but in the entire NHL, beat the Sabres last night. In earning a 3-2 shootout win at HSBC arena, the New York Rangers now have the longest point streak in the NHL this season, having earned at least a point in every game over their past 13 contests. The win moves them to 10-0-3 in their last 13, and an incredible 15-3-3 in their last 20. The last time the Rangers played this well over such a long period of time was in '94. I won't go there...

1st goal: Jason Pominville, with assists from Paul Gaustad and Jochen Hecht at 0:16. The Rangers didn't realize the game had started and were still doing warmups. Henrik was hung out to dry. Worst start imaginable for the good guys.

2nd goal: Fedor Tyutin, from Dawes and Shanahan, 1:22 in. Huge answer for the Rangers; they don't get this goal, the game goes differently. Both teams settled down a bit after this one, but both teams were guilty of giving up glorious scoring opportunities. Rangers had no answer for Thomas Vanek.

3rd goal: Jaromir Jagr, from Avery and Dubinsky, 8:26 of the 2nd. Avery absolutely demolished Sabre defenseman Nathan Paetsch, grabbed the puck and fed Jagr who was now wide open in the slot for a perfect one-timer to give NY a 2-1 lead.

4th goal: PP goal. Thomas "we have no answer" Vanek, from Jason Pominville and Maxim Afinogenov, at 14:14 of the 3rd. Pominville took a high shot from just inside the blue line, Vanek redirected it in over Lundquist.

The Rangers had too many penalties called against them. Did they deserve some of them. Yes. It seemed playing the 2nd of back-to-back games was wearing on NY, especially in the 2nd period. Were some of the calls tacky? Definitely. Did the refs, specifically Bill McCreary miss or ignore calls the other way? Absolutely.

Avery takes a hard elbow to the face, somehow, McCreary "misses" this one. Avery then gets called for roughing (retaliation) a few minutes later on what amounted to a push. Coincidentally, Tyutin had just been given two minutes for holding (deserved), which gave the Sabres a full 2 minute 5-3 power play. NY killed it very effectively, however. Another egregious call was on Fredrik Sjostrom, who was very obviouly coming to a stop and leaning backwards, trying to avoid contact with Sabre netminder Ryan Miller, when he was crosschecked into Miller. McCleary calls Sjostrom for interference. This one cost the Rangers a goal and the lead.

Probably the worst of the night was at the end of regulation; Colton Orr puts a hard but clean hit on a Sabre in front of Buffalo's bench as time expires. Andrew Peters, who is on the bench, punches Orr in the chops, Orr puts his hands up to protect himself, pushes Peters, who then takes another swipe at Orr. Penalties? Incidental 10 minute misconducts. INCIDENTAL!? Where is the mandatory unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Peters for getting involved in a play from the bench?! Referee Bill McCreary has got to retire or be retired after this season, he's a joke. How Renney holds keeps his cool in those situations, I'll never know. Rangers would get called for 10 penalties, Sabres 5.

Buffalo played down 2 defensemen for almost 1/2 the game, as Jaroslav Spacek was lost to an upper body injury in the 1st and Dmitri Kalinin did not make it back to the bench in the 2nd. One would think that with Buffalo down to 4 D, the Rangers would press the attack, never letting the Sabres breathe and win going away. One would be wrong.

Overall, the Rangers made too many mistakes that Lundquist had to cover for. Bad or non-existent defensive-zone coverage, east-west passes (Straka) or tired legs; against a better team, the Rangers would have lost this one. Thankfully, we have Lundquist. In the OT, Lundquist stopped Afinogenov on a breakaway and Nigel Dawes hit the post behind Miller with 8 seconds remaining.

Shootout:

1st Round - Sabres' Drew Stafford hit the post behind Lundquist, Brendan Shanahan's patented rising wrister from the slot beats Miller high on the glove side.
2nd Round - Henrik forces Ales Kotalik wide, no chance. Nigel Dawes tries to lift puck over Miller's right pad, Miller stops it.
3rd Round - Jason Pominville snaps a shot over Lunquist's left shoulder, ties shootout at 1. Scotty Gomez answers with a beauty, shoulder-faking Miller to the right, skating left and barely skliding the puck between Miller' right skate and the post. Rangers win shootout 2-1, game 3-2.

NY (37-24-9) is now tied for the 5th seed with the sinking Sens, only behind Ottawa by one victory. The win puts them just 3 points behind the game-in-hand Devils for 1st place in both the division and conference. Crazy.

NY gets 3 days off now, with the Florida Panthers in their sights on Friday. When a team is hot as the Rangers are, the mistakes aren't as glaring. With 12 games left, now would be a time to fix whatever issues there are in preparation for the playoffs. It goes without saying that coach Renney will address the problems that reared their ugly head last night.