Tonight we had a fun game in Buffalo with the Sabres getting a big 3-2 win at home against the Minnesota Wild on the back of a great game in goal from Devon Levi, a nice bounce back coming off a good game in a losing effort in Carolina on Wednesday night. 

The Sabres played pretty well after a slow start to the first period, getting a pretty good amount of scoring chances and with Devon Levi making a ton of big saves to keep the game scoreless in an evenly matched period. With 1:58 left in the first period, the Sabres got on the board with Henri Jokiharju getting his second goal of the season as Buffalo caused chaos in the offensive zone and were rewarded with a 1-0 lead. Just over a minute later with 29.9 seconds left in the period, Karill the Thrill Kaprizov tied up the game at 1-1 on the power play, beating Devon Levi with a nice one timer on a perfect shot off a perfect pass from Matt Boldy.

After a long second period that didn’t feel like it should’ve been scoreless, with 58 seconds left, Jeff Skinner went flyin’ and soarin’ and was breaking freeeee on a breakaway to give the Sabres a 2-1 lead. Glad the Sabres got the lead back and got on the board in the second. They played well again, highlighted by a solid four minute penalty kill and it was nice to see them get awarded there.

The scoring came much earlier in the third period, just 3:33 into the third and after a nice give and go on the zone entry by Jeff Skinner and Tage Thompson, JJ Peterka snuck right through, got the pass from Tage and got the goal to give the Sabres a 3-1 lead. Joel Eriksson Ek got the Wild back within a goal on the power play, capitalizing on a cross ice pass right on the doorstep of Levi with 7:33 left in regulation. With the pressure on in the end of the game, Devon Levi made some huge saves all the way till the last second to get the Sabres the win!

FINAL: Sabres 3, Wild 2

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Huge night for Devon Levi. The kid was fantastic in goal, making 31 saves on the 33 shots he saw as we got outshot 33-25 by the Wild and out chanced 27-18. The boys played really solid hockey in front of Levi on the way to the win after the slow start and we fought for the win in a game that on paper we got outplayed in by an expected goal rate of 4.89-2.34. 

It’s onto Pittsburgh tomorrow night for the Sabres to face off against the Pens.

Let’s Go Buffalo!

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