Lindy Ruff is not only an award-winning coach, it appears he's a soothsayer, too.

The Buffalo Sabres' bench boss, when previewing Saturday's matchup with the New York Rangers,

had two main concerns about the Blueshirts. Ruff knew they had most of the week off, so he

figured they would work hard at tightening a defense that was downright offensive. The coach

also was worried about Marian Gaborik, who already has 21 goals this season and can capitalize

on the smallest of mistakes.

Sure enough, the Rangers patched the gaping hole in their system and Gaborik set up an early

goal. That meant the end of the Sabres' hot streak, as New York left HSBC Arena with a 2-1

victory.

The Sabres, for the third time this season, had their winning streak stopped at four games.

They were halted at four twice last season and haven't reached five since stringing together

six straight wins in December 2007.

The Rangers, who hadn't played since Monday, obviously used their time off to focus on

defense. They had given up 18 goals in their previous three games, an average of six allowed

per outing.

The Sabres could connect only once.

"We had a good three days of practice, worked on some system stuff to really just nail it

down in our head to play on the right side of the puck," Rangers captain Chris Drury said. "We

just played hard. ... We had to play that type of game to get two points."

Ruff talked at length Friday about Gaborik and warned that the Sabres must be wary when the

speedster was on the ice. Ruff said they must be careful with the puck around Gaborik or a

fast break in the opposite direction was sure to occur.

Second prophecy fulfilled. A turnover by Tyler Myers gave Gaborik and the Rangers an odd-man

rush and a 1-0 lead.

Myers hopped off the bench and rushed toward the Rangers' blue line to chase down a loose

puck, but he followed by charging right into Gaborik and lost possession. Gaborik took off,

received an outlet from Artem Anisimov and lifted a pass over the foot of Henrik Tallinder

onto the stick of Christopher Higgins.

The forward completed the odd-man rush with a laser into the top corner with 2:29 remaining

in the first period.

"It's one of those you'd like to have back," Ruff said. "The play Tyler made at the blue

line, we talked about [Gaborik] is the type of guy that's just going to be waiting for any

kind of rush opportunity. Probably the right play would have been chip it past him and go get

it yourself, or just dump it hard back down.

"He made a heck of a pass. It was a hard saucer pass that landed perfect, and it set up a

pretty nice goal. But one goal shouldn't beat you. We had some opportunities that we just

didn't quite convert. It wasn't quite good enough."

The Sabres went to the dressing room for the first intermission with the 1-0 deficit despite

controlling long stretches of the period. They weren't nearly as effective during the second,

as imperfect passing allowed the Rangers several point-blank chances among their 15 shots.

The Rangers gave goalie Henrik Lundqvist a two-goal cushion with 6:16 to play. Sean Avery

got behind defenseman Steve Montador to start a two-on-one. Ryan Miller stopped Avery's shot,

but Ryan Callahan popped home the rebound.

They needed the cushion. Jason Pominville streaked down the right wing with one minute

remaining and ripped a far-side slap shot past Lundqvist with just 58.1 seconds left.

The Sabres are off today then start their first four-game week of the season. The third

outing of the five-game homestand comes Monday when the New Jersey Devils visit, and they will

be followed by Washington on Wednesday and Chicago on Friday. The Sabres complete the week

Saturday with a game in New York against the Rangers.

"We can't put our head down," Sabres forward Mike Grier said. "We've got a busy schedule

here. We've just got to be ready to work."