Traverse City

After a year without a tournament, Traverse City is back. Once again, the Rangers and Sabres are among eight teams whose prospects are competing in the Tournament. Broken down into two divisions, the Rangers, Sabres, Hurricanes and Blue Jackets compete in the Ted Lindsay playing each other once. The Gordie Howe Division is made up of Detroit, St. Louis, Dallas and Minnesota. The two first place winners face off in the championship September 9. Wherever you finish, that’s who you play.

Right now, the Rangers are 0-2. They dropped their first game Thursday to the Hurricanes 4-3 and lost to the Sabres 6-5 in overtime Friday. The Rangers posted highlights of the loss to Buffalo. Oscar Lindberg recorded a hat trick in defeat. Danny Kristo scored once and had a nice set up for a sweet Lindberg finish. In the first game, Kristo had eight shots. He makes things happen. The line to watch has been Lindberg, Kristo and Jesper Fast. A crop of young forwards who will have an opportunity in camp. Don’t forget no Carl Hagelin or Ryan Callahan to start the year.

Buffalo built a 5-2 lead. Nicholas Baptiste notched his second and Eric Locke followed up 22 seconds later. Nikita Zadorov and Logan Nelson scored earlier to put them in front 3-1. They put together some nice plays taking advantage of shaky D. The Rangers came all the way back when Josh Graves scored on a breakaway, going to the backhand.

In between the goal parade, there were a pair of fights including Payton Leroux mixing it up for a second straight game. In overtime, the Sabres were victorious thanks to Zadorov’s second. His left point blast went through traffic sneaking past Jeff Malcolm for the winner with 23 seconds left. The play was set up by some hard work behind the net, allowing Buffalo to keep the puck in.

Buffalo also posted a 3-2 win over the Blue Jackets. They’ll take their 2-0 record and take on Carolina at 3:30 EST today. The Rangers look to avoid going 0-3 when they face Columbus at 6:30 EST.