Today in a matinee leading into the Bills game, the Sabres played in a fantastic game at home against the Wild, ultimately losing 5-4 in overtime.
The Wild got on the board first on some lousy defense in front by Owen Power, not clearing the puck as Marcus Foligno stuffed the puck past UPL to put Minnesota up 1-0, 9:19 into the game. Ryan McLeod tied it up less than a minute later, tossing it at the net with Jack Quinn tossing it on goal for McLeod to deflect into the net. With 7.5 seconds left in the first period, Quinn Hughes made a great play, wheeling the puck into the corner and putting the puck through the crease for Ryan Hartman to tip in.
The Wild made it 3-1 just 1:08 into the second, on the rush with some quick passing on a zone entry, with Vladdy Tarasenko getting the easy goal on the open net. With 9:53 left in the second, Peyton Krebs tipped in a shot by Mattias Samuelsson, to get us a back within one, making it a 3-2 game. Jack Quinn tied it up and hit the over with 8:26 left in the second, sliding in the rebound after some nice sustained pressure in the Minnesota zone. Alex Tuch gave the Sabres the 4-3 lead with 3:53 left in the second, ripping a perfect one timer top shelf from Tage Thompson on the power play. Beauty goal. Quinn Hughes tied it right back up though with a rocket from the point 53 seconds later.
Electric third period despite no goals getting scored, with both teams getting a ton of chances, but we head to overtime shorthanded.
1:47 into overtime, on the power play, Kirill Kaprizov setup Mats Zuccarello on the game winner on a beautiful goal that there was no chance Luukkonen was going to slide over quick enough to save, and that’s game.
FINAL: Sabres 4, Wild 5 (OT)
(Note – I recorded this right after the Bills game since I was tight on time in between the Sabres and Bills, so really this doesn’t recap the game, but god this sucks)
What a great hockey game. I thought this was a very evenly played game, and we get a point in the losing effort, which is still huge in the standings, especially losing to a Western Conference team rather than someone else in the tight race in the East. We played pretty well tonight. Even though he gave up five goals, UPL was pretty solid in goal. The difference of this game though was that although we generated a ton of shot attempts, we couldn’t hit the net, yet still scored four goals. Decent effort for the Sabres. Gotta bounce back as we start a five game road trip.
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