Beck Malenstyn and Josh Doan scored in regulation and the visiting Buffalo Sabres won 3-2 in a shootout to end the Minnesota Wild’s seven-game winning streak on Saturday night in St. Paul, Minn.
Tage Thompson, Jack Quinn and Noah Ostlund scored in the four-round shootout, and Colten Ellis made 22 saves in his sixth NHL start, letting only one attempt past him in the shootout for the Sabres, who had lost two in a row.
Kirill Kaprizov scored for the fifth straight game, Matt Boldy – who had Minnesota’s lone shootout goal — also scored and Filip Gustavsson made 30 saves for the Wild, who were 11-1-1 in their past 13 games.
Kaprizov scored his sixth goal in the past five games to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 9:37 of the first period.
Buffalo forward Tyson Kozak tried to clear the puck from his zone, but it hit Wild defenseman Jake Middleton in the back, leading to a cross-ice feed from Mats Zuccarello to Kaprizov, who scored his 17th goal of the season with a one-timer from the right circle.
The Sabres tied it 1-1 at 12:42.
Peyton Krebs took a shot from the left circle off a rush that was stopped, but the rebound went off Malenstyn and across the goal line.
The Wild moved back ahead 2-1 at 14:05 of the first.
Buffalo forward Alex Tuch overskated the puck just as he was about to cross the blue line. He then brought the puck back deeper into his zone and it was stolen by Boldy along the wall. He then skated in alone on Ellis and scored from the bottom of the right circle.
Doan was credited with a goal when his shot caromed off the glass behind the goal and back over the net. Wild forward Zuccarello tried to bat the puck away with his glove but slapped it into his own net to tie it 2-2 at 6:01 of the third.
–Field Level Media
