Rangers hold on to beat Sabres as Mika Zibanejad scores his 300th NHL goal

BUFFALO — The way things have been going for the Rangers, they don’t need style points. Just wins. And they don’t care who they beat, either.

So they surely aren’t going to apologize for a 3-2 victory Wednesday night at KeyBank Arena over a struggling Sabres team that hasn’t won since Nov. 23. Coming off an awful home loss to last-place Chicago on Monday, the Rangers will take any positive result — and any standings points — they can get right now.

“I mean, that’s what we talked about before the game,’’ said Mika Zibanejad, whose 300th career goal, on a power play in the first period, got the Rangers (15-12-1) started in the right direction. “Just one win. That’s all we care about. And obviously you want be able to stand here with an unbelievable effort for 60 minutes, and have . . . only positive stuff. But I’ll take the win. We’ll take the win. And keep building.’’

In a game that didn’t provide a whole lot of thrills for the first 50-plus minutes, Zibanejad’s goal looked, for the longest time, as if it would stand up as the game-winner. Reilly Smith’s third goal in four games, at 13:29 of the third period, made it 2-0 and looked as if it would settle things, but when a goal by Owen Power at 15:09 of the third got Buffalo on the board, it was game on.

Adam Fox’s first goal of the season, into an empty net with 2:02 left, put the visitors up 3-1 and helped them withstand Tage Thompson’s goal with 37.7 seconds to go.

Igor Shesterkin (29 saves) and the defense held on from there.

Fox, who played a team-high 24:14 and led the Rangers with five blocks, also had his 23rd and 24th assists of the season.

Fox’s goal actually came on his second attempt from deep in his own end. He flipped a backhander toward the net from the left corner that went wide for an icing, then, on the ensuing faceoff, dug the puck out of the right corner and fired it the length of the ice.

“Nowadays you’re always seeing guys send it,’’ Fox said, acknowledging he was trying for the empty-netter with a one-goal lead. “I think that’s the probability part of it, of just getting it over the blue [line], they’re probably coming back. So if you have an opportunity where, eyes up, you know, took a shot at it. I trust Troch [Vincent Trocheck] to win a draw if I missed, which another one did. But [it] turned out to be a kind of meaningful goal there.’’

The victory didn’t come without a price, however. Defenseman K’Andre Miller missed the final period with what the team said was an upper-body injury. The 6-5, 210-pound Miller had a strong game, but he took a heavy hit from Buffalo’s 6-6, 231-pound Jordan Greenway in the second period that knocked him to the ice. He did continue to play and finished the period, but didn’t return for the third.

“Upper body,’’ Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said when asked for an update.

Buffalo (11-14-4) was without its No. 1 defenseman and captain, Rasmus Dahlin, who missed his fourth straight game after having back spasms. And as grim as things have been for the Rangers, they might be worse for the Sabres, who are now winless in their last eight games (0-5-3).

“Definitely, coming into this game, it was two teams who were just looking for a win, and I thought we battled to get that,’’ Fox said.

Artemi Panarin, playing in his 700th game, assisted on Zibanejad’s goal, which opened the scoring at 7:01 of the first. Zibanejad, who has struggled mightily this season, got off to an awful start when he was called for tripping Greenway just 20 seconds into the game.

“Trust my teammates,’’ Zibanejad said when asked what he was thinking as he headed to the penalty box. “I thought we had a great kill there, and then got off to a good start. I mean, it’s not my intention to take a penalty, but it happens. And when it happens, I’m happy that I am on this team with the PK that we have [second-best in the league, at an 85.9% kill rate].

“We killed it off, and we’re able to get our power play of our own and score and get the lead.’’

That happened when Buffalo’s Connor Clifton got called for tripping at 6:53 of the period. Eight seconds later, Zibanejad rifled a shot through traffic from the top of the right wing circle past Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen (25 saves) for his sixth goal of the season.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.