The magic of the red and black goathead jerseys this season continued for the Sabres tonight with a beautiful 6-5 overtime win at home in a THRILLER of a game against the Wild!
The Sabres played a great first period tonight, going into the first intermission up 1-0 despite getting outshot 9-8. Victor Olofsson opened the scoring 13 minutes into the game, first, he started the play down in the defensive zone and transitioned it up, and then got to the right spot on the ice, putting the puck glove side on Marc-Andre Fleury off the pass from Casey Mittelstadt. The defense played well too, limiting the chances that they gave the Wild to keep the game 1-0.
Just 2:52 into the second, Luukkonen couldn’t find the puck in front of the net as Brandon Duhaime tipped the puck past him to tie the game up at 1-1 on a goal that was questionably goaltender interference but the Sabres decided not to challenge it. The Wild took the lead at the 6:46 mark of the second on a nice shot from Kirill the thrill Kaprizov on a 5 on 3. 10:30 into the second, Tage Thompson blasted home a one-timer from Dahlin on the power play and tied up the game at two on a beautiful shot, top shelf where mama hides the cookies. Just 1:32 later, Rasmus Dahlin had some beautiful patience with the puck right in the slot and shot it past Fleury, blocker side to give the Sabres the lead back. Dylan Cozens jumped on a turnover and on a nice shot far side, glove side on Fleury gave the Sabres a 4-2 lead just 1:53 later, the third unanswered goal for Buffalo in this crazy second period after we gave up the two to open the period. Before the period ended, Ryan Hartman tapped the puck in to make it a one goal game again with 1:15 left in the period, while the Sabres defense just didn’t do anything to stop him sneaking in the back side. What a fun period, seeing six goals and the Sabres holding their one goal lead going into the third.
The Wild scored early in the third as well, tying the game up on a sloppy goal by former Sabre Marcus Foligno just 26 seconds into the period. Minnesota retook the lead with Joel Eriksson Ek putting the puck in the top right corner of the net on the power play with pretty much a perfect shot, putting the Wild up 5-4 7:48 in the third. Dahlin tied the game up late, with 2:24 left in regulation with his second goal of the game, waiting for the right time and quarterbacking the offense from up top and then ripping a one-timer from Casey Mittelstadt, the fourth point of the night for Dahls. Despite some nice chances late for the Sabres to get the regulation win, that goal sent us into overtime with a 5-5 tied game.
Beautiful chances in overtime for both teams. The Sabres got a perfect two-on-one chance with Tuch and Thompson and then not long after a Jeff Skinner breakaway, both of which got saved by Fleury. Then on the other end of the ice, UPL made some key saves including one on a breakaway. Victor GOALLLLLofsson finished off the game blasting in his second goal of the game with just 18.3 seconds left in overtime on a fantastic pass from Peyton Krebs in transition. Bookends to the game with Olofsson scoring both the first and last goals of the game. What a fun overtime period seeing ten shots and so many great chances and great saves.
FINAL: Sabres 6, Wild 5 (OT)
What an absolutely thrilling game that was so much fun to watch tonight! Even though we got outshot 44-37 and outplayed by an expected goal rate of 2.94-2.33 but that didn’t matter as the Sabres offense continued to dominate as the highest-scoring team in the NHL and they withstood the poor defense to stay in the game to get the win. Five-point night for Dahlin, the first time for a defenseman this season. Great game and the top line played great as well.
The magic of the red and black continued tonight with the Sabres staying undefeated in those sweaters, and once again scoring six goals in them, which they’ve done every game. Like Dahlin said in his post-game interview with Duff and Marty, the boys feel “evil in them”. Love it.
Go Sabres!!!
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