BUFFALO, N.Y. — An imperfect, occasionally sloppy showing by the Wild was enough to get by the lowly Flyers and put the team's struggles on ice for at least a game.
And the same setup didn't work against the equally woeful Sabres, who turned the tables on the Wild with a 5-4 comeback Friday at KeyBank Center to hand the Wild its seventh loss over its past nine games.
Buffalo's Jeff Skinner scored the tying goal and then the go-ahead tally in a 4-minute, 20-second span in the third period, flipping a one-goal deficit into a one-goal lead for the Sabres.
First, Skinner pounced on a fortuitous bounce off the boards and wired the puck into an empty net at 12:20; Kaapo Kahkonen had left his crease to play the initial dump-in and was scrambling to regain his positioning.
Then for an encore, Skinner lifted the puck over Kahkonen in tight at 16:40 before Victor Olofsson dumped the puck into an empty net at 18:54.
That goal actually emerged as the game-winner because Kirill Kaprizov potted his second goal of the game with 32 seconds left. But time ran out before the Wild could close the gap.
Earlier in the third, Kevin Fiala and Kaprizov scored to give the Wild its first and only lead. But the team hasn't spent much time lately playing when ahead, and the inexperience showed.
Like the previous night in Philadelphia where the Wild eked out a 5-4 victory after rallying four times, the Wild fell behind first.
Casey Mittelstadt capitalized on the power play 8:51 into the game, burying a puck that bounced off traffic to him at the side of the net.
Before the first period ended, the Wild tied the game on a Ryan Hartman shot at 15:25 for Hartman's third goal in his past two games. Kaprizov assisted on the play, and their line with Hartman was missing Mats Zuccarello, who was scratched because of an upper-body injury.
But by 6:01 of the second, the Wild was trailing again — this time after Kyle Okposo buried a rebound off Kahkonen's glove on the power play 6:01 into the second that emphasized another difficult night for the Wild's penalty kill.
After the Sabres went 2 for 3, the Wild has given up at least one power play goal in 11 of the past 12 games since the All-Star Break. Overall, the PK has surrendered 14 goals in 41 shorthanded situations.
As for the Wild, it went 1 for 2.
That 2-1 lead for Buffalo hung around for the rest of the period, and if it weren't for Kahkonen, the Sabres could have run away from the Wild.
Not only did Kahkonen make an impressive stop with his right skate on Peyton Krebs, who raised his hands in a premature celebration, but Kahkonen also got a piece of a 2-on-0 short-handed look from Dylan Cozens. Overall, he racked up 33 saves.
Finally, in the third period and after hitting a few posts, Fiala converted on a long-range shot at 3:20.
That was his 18th goal of the season, and he's up to 10 points over his last seven games.
Then, only 1:39 later, Kaprizov's wrist shot sailed by Buffalo goalie Craig Anderson, who totaled 29 saves.
But then Skinner took over and a timely empty-netter from Olofsson became the difference maker.
