Gaudreau secures shootout win as Wild beat Buffalo 3-2

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Mats Zuccarello, Kirill Kaprizov and Freddy Gaudreau scored within the shootout, lifting the Minnesota Wild previous the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 on Saturday night time.

Joel Eriksson Ek and Jared Spurgeon had targets in regulation for Minnesota, which headed into the All-Star break with two wins in a row.

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 29 pictures for the Wild, together with a sprawling save to thwart Tage Thompson on a wraparound attempt with about eight minutes left in regulation. He additionally made a pair of stops about 4 minutes later with Buffalo buzzing within the Wild’s finish.

Thompson scored within the shootout for Buffalo, however Jack Quinn was stopped by Fleury, and Gaudreau secured the win for Minnesota.

Quinn and Zemgus Girgensons scored in regulation for Buffalo, which earned seven of eight factors on a highway journey by means of a lot of the Central Division that included victories in Dallas, St. Louis and Winnipeg. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 33 saves for the Sabres, a league-best 12-2-2 on the highway since Nov. 22.

With the shootout loss, Buffalo has factors in seven straight highway contests for the primary time since Feb. 8 to March 6, 2011.

Buffalo went up by one twice within the first two durations, solely to see Minnesota shortly reply every time.

Early within the first, Quinn took benefit of a turnover by Minnesota and beat Fleury with a wrister from the slot, however Eriksson Ek transformed a feed from Kirill Kaprizov 73 seconds in a while the facility play.

Left open on the again publish, Girgensons transformed a cross from Kyle Okposo halfway by means of the second interval. However lower than three minutes later, Freddy Gaudreau discovered Spurgeon coming low within the left circle and delivered an ideal feed for a simple redirect.

Rasmus Dahlin thought he gave the Sabres a 3-2 lead, however his rebound crossed the aim line lower than a second after the center interval expired.

SABRES SANS TWO

Buffalo D Mattias Samuelsson took half within the morning skate, however missed his second straight sport with a lower-body harm. C Dylan Cozens, fifth on the crew with 17 targets and 43 factors, missed his first sport with an undisclosed harm. Each had been game-time choices. C Rasmus Asplund and D Kale Clague took their spots.

UP NEXT

Sabres: At house on Feb. 1 vs. Carolina.

Wild: At Arizona on Feb. 6.

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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://www.twitter.com/AP_Sports

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