Buffalo was in a three-way tie for first with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens entering the night. But Alex Tuch, Jason Zucker and Zach Benson scored in the third period, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen finished with 17 saves to lift the Sabres ahead of the Lightning and Canadiens.
The Sabres (48-23-8), who hadn’t been in first place by themselves since April 1, have three games remaining. Tampa Bay and Montreal, both off Wednesday, each have four left.
Benson scored twice, and Zucker and Ryan McLeod each had a goal and an assist. Buffalo has won two in a row.
Alexis Lafreniere scored twice, Adam Fox had a goal and an assist, and Igor Shesterkin made 22 saves for the Rangers (33-37-9), who were already eliminated from playoff contention.
McLeod gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead 4:40 into the first period when he scored on a wide-open shot from the right face-off circle.
Benson made it 2-0 Buffalo at 8:58 when Rasmus Dahlin’s shot from the right point ricochetted off him and into the net.
Lafreniere scored his first goal on the power play at 19:21 to cut the Sabres’ lead to 2-1.
He scored again at 2:57 of the second period, beating Luukkonen on a breakaway to make it 2-2.
Fox scored a power-play goal with a point shot through Lafreniere’s netfront screen to give New York a 3-2 lead at 14:44 of the second.
The Rangers killed a pair of overlapping penalties, including 56 seconds of a 5-on-3 power play for the Sabres, to maintain the one-goal lead going into the third.
But Tuch evened it at 3-3 at 5:51 of the third period with a deflection of Peyton Krebs’ shot from the point.
Zucker gave Buffalo a 4-3 lead at 7:14 by collecting a rebound of McLeod’s shot from the left point and tucking the puck around Shesterkin’s outstretched left pad.
Benson’s empty-net goal at 18:45 made it 5-3.