ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Wild (25-23-6) blew a one-goal lead in the third period en route to a 3-2 overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres (24-26-4) on Saturday night inside Xcel Energy Center. The loss snapped the Wild’s four-game win streak.
The Wild had the better of the five-on-five play through the first two periods with a 33-19 edge in shot attempts and 65.76 percent of the expected goal share, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The Wild, who took three penalties in the first period, outshot the Sabres 10-3 in the middle frame, too.
Yet, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who made 30 saves on 32 shots, had an answer for each of them, and the game remained scoreless after two periods.
“It was fun playing the first two periods,” Filip Gustavsson said postgame after making 25 saves on 28 shots, “and probably not the way we want to play defensively, but offensively we played good. The puck just didn't want to go in for us in the first two (periods). Fun to make some stops.”
Eden Prairie native Casey Mittelstadt opened the scoring 39 seconds into the third when he beat Gustavsson from the right circle on a 2-on-1. But the Wild responded 3:23 later when Joel Eriksson Ek finished a Kirill Kaprizov drop pass with 15:58 left for his team-leading 25th goal of the season.
“You never know what he’s going to do,” Eriksson Ek said of Kaprizov. “He’s one of those players that you gotta be ready all the time. Fantastic pass.”
Declan Chisholm, in his Wild debut, scored his first NHL goal and gave the Wild a 2-1 lead with 8:39 left when his shot through traffic from the point beat Luukkonen glove side on the power play.
“After I scored that goal,” Chisholm said, “I just wanted the game to end right there so we get the win. But (a) weird wave of emotions coming in. Obviously super happy to score that goal. It's probably the best feeling I’ve ever had playing hockey, but (it) sucks to lose, and you really want to win that game.”
Unfortunately for the Wild, the game didn’t end at that point, and there was no storybook ending as they failed to preserve the lead.
With the goalie pulled, Jordan Greenway, in his return to St. Paul after getting traded to Buffalo last March, set up Dylan Cozens’ game-tying goal with 37 seconds remaining to force overtime. Henri Jokiharju beat Gustavsson high blocker from the slot for the game-winning goal a minute and 32 seconds into overtime.
“We know we need points,” Eriksson Ek said. “A little bit of a stinger right now.”
Gustavsson added: “You're going to win and lose some, (but) it’s more frustrating just how we lost the game today, not just that we lost a point.”
The Wild still grabbed five out of six possible points this week and are 7-2-1 in their past 10 games and are trending in the right direction. As Freddy Gaudreau said, “We can’t beat ourselves up with that, just gotta keep building on the good stuff we’ve done lately.”
Added coach John Hynes: “If we can continue the consistency and the style of game that we played for the majority of the week, that’s going to give us the best chance to continue to win and be a hard team to play against.”
The Wild are going to have to be at their best with a difficult schedule ahead in what is likely a season-defining stretch.
“It’s a good challenge for us,” Eriksson Ek said. “Those are the teams we want to be able to play against.”