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ST. PAUL, Minnesota — Mats Zuccarello, Kirill Kaprizov and Freddy Gaudreau scored in the shootout and lifted the Minnesota Wild 3-2 past the Buffalo Sabers Saturday night.
Joel Eriksson Ek and Jared Spurgeon had goals in the regulation for Minnesota, which went into its All-Star break with two straight wins.
Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 29 shots for the Wild, including a wide save to thwart Tage Thompson in an all-around attempt with about eight minutes remaining in regulation. He also made a few stops about four minutes later, with Buffalo buzzing the wild at the end.
“You saw this morning that we’re out of the playoffs, right? Not fun to watch. A good win tonight and a good two points,” said Fleury. “At least now we have seven days to see each other in the playoffs. Then when we get back, get back to work.”
Thompson scored in the shootout for Buffalo, but Jack Quinn was stopped by Fleury, and Gaudreau gave Minnesota the win.
Wild trainer Dean Evason hates gunfights but likes to take the result.
“We have some world-class goalkeepers,” he said, “and those three guys did us pretty well up front.”
Gaudreau added, “Zuccy and Kirill are spectacular.”
Minnesota has seven wins from regulation this year, four of them by penalty shootouts. Since the beginning of last season, the Wild have led the NHL with 23 wins in extra session games.
Quinn and Zemgus Girgensons scored seven out of eight points in the rule for Buffalo on a road trip through much of the Central Division that included victories in Dallas, St. Louis and Winnipeg. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 33 saves for the Sabers, the league’s best 12-2-2 since November 22.
“Not what we wanted tonight, but to get seven out of eight points is a pretty good performance from this group,” said coach Don Granato.
The shootout loss gives Buffalo points in seven straight road contests for the first time since February 8-March 6, 2011.
“We have a long journey ahead of us now,” Girgensons said. “They are not easy. And especially at the end it’s hard to push it. I thought we did a pretty good job.”
Buffalo rose by one twice in the first two periods, only to see Minnesota respond quickly each time.
Early in the first round, Quinn capitalized on a Minnesota turnover and knocked Fleury out of the slot with a wrister, but Eriksson Ek converted a feed from Kaprizov on the power play 73 seconds later.
Left open at the back post, Girgensons converted a pass from Kyle Okposo midway through the second half. But less than three minutes later, Gaudreau found Spurgeon in the left circle and provided a perfect feed for an easy detour.
Rasmus Dahlin thought he gave the Sabers a 3-2 lead, but his rebound crossed the goal line less than a second into the middle period.
“I thought it was in there,” Fleury said. “The horn was a bit delayed, right? It was after the puck went in, so I was like, ‘Ahh.’ Extra emotions, right? Like, ‘Ahh.’ Then, ‘Woo-hoo.’ That was good.”
Buffalo D Mattias Samuelsson participated in the morning skate but missed his second straight game with a lower body injury. C Dylan Cozens, fifth on the team with 17 goals and 43 points, missed his first game with an undisclosed injury. Both were game-time decisions. C Rasmus Asplund and D Kale Clague took their places.
“We played a lot of hockey and I don’t want to make things worse at this point,” Granato said. “We are in a good position to move forward.”
Sabers: February 1st at home against Carolina.
Wild: In Arizona on February 6th.
AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://www.twitter.com/AP_Sports
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