Sabres Dig Deep to Defeat Wild in Shootout 3-2

The Minnesota Wild hosted the Buffalo Sabres to finish out their home back-to-back on Saturday night, Nov. 29. The Wild’s injury list shortened once again as they got Vladimir Tarasenko back after he missed the previous seven games. They were still without Marcus Foligno, Marco Rossi, and Vinnie Hinostroza. The Sabres were without Justin Danforth, Michael Kesselring, Jiri Kulich, and Josh Norris due to injuries.

Filip Gustavsson was in the net for the Wild, and Colton Ellis was in the net for the Sabres. The game started out in favor of the Wild, and the Sabres fought back to tie it twice and forced overtime. The overtime ended scoreless, and the game went to a shootout where the Sabres won 3-2. This moved the Wild to 14-7-5 and the Sabres to 10-11-4.

Game Recap

The Wild got things started towards the halfway point of the opening period with a goal from Kirill Kaprizov. Mats Zuccarello and Danila Yurov assisted him to make it 1-0. The Sabres responded a short time later with a goal from Beck Malenstyn. Peyton Krebs and Josh Dunne tallied the assists to make it 1-1. A few minutes later, the Wild answered back with an unassisted goal by Matt Boldy to make it 2-1. That was the final goal of the period, and the Wild took the lead into the second.

Despite some close calls for both sides, there was no scoring in the second period, and the Wild took the lead into the final period. The Sabres tied it up early in the third on a goal that Zuccarello accidentally tossed into his own net after trying to catch the puck after it bounced off the glass behind the net. The goal was given to Josh Doan, with the assists going to Alex Tuch and Noah Östlund, to make it 2-2.

Noah Ostlund Buffalo Sabres — Buffalo Sabres center Noah Östlund celebrates his goal with teammates against the Edmonton Oilers (Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images)

Neither team scored before time ran out, so overtime was needed, where no one scored once again, and they went to a shootout. The Sabres scored three times to the Wild’s two and took the win 3-2.

This…wrapped up the Wild’s two-game homestand, and they’ll now head on the road to open the month of December with four games in the northwest. Their first game will be on Tuesday, Dec. 2, against the Edmonton Oilers. The Sabres will head back home to host the Winnipeg Jets on Monday, Dec. 1.