As sharp as the Wild defense has been this season, they couldn't slow down one of the NHL's best offenses, getting dropped, 6-5 in overtime, by the Sabres on Saturday at KeyBank Center to kick off a weekend back-to-back with just their third loss in the last 12 games.
Victor Olofsson capitalized with 19 seconds left in overtime, this after Rasmus Dahlin knotted the score at 5 with 2:24 left in the third.
Earlier in the period, Joel Eriksson Ek's power-play goal at 7:48 put the Wild ahead after Marcus Foligno scored the equalizer only 26 seconds into the period.
Buffalo's Victor Olofsson opened the scoring 13 minutes into the first period, but Brandon Duhaime had the game's first equalizer 2:52 into the second. The goal was Duhaime's fourth of the season in his first game back from missing 18 with an upper-body injury.
Kirill Kaprizov converted on a 5-on-3 look with a shot from between the circles at 6:46.
That was Kaprizov's team-leading 23rd goal, fourth in the past four games and 11th on the power play, which is fifth-best in the NHL, but that lead for the Wild was short-lived because three goals in 3:25 put Buffalo in the driver's seat.
Tage Thompson served up the tying goal on the power play at 10:30 with a blistering one-timer. Only 1:32 later after pressure had the Wild in a spotty setup, Dahlin pulled the puck into the slot for a patient wrister that sailed by Marc-Andre Fleury. Then at 13:55, Cozens went top-shelf on the power play while Kaprizov was in the penalty box for the second time.
Before the second ended, Ryan Hartman trimmed the Wild's deficit to a goal when he batted in a Frederick Gaudreau pass with 1:15 to go.
Fleury finished with 31 saves, while Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had 39.
The Wild were 2 for 3 on the power play and the Sabres 2 for 4.
———
The Star Tribune did not send the writer of this article to the game. This was written using a broadcast, interviews and other material.
