Fresh off a pair of wins, the Minnesota Wild hope they’ve turned a corner offensively and will aim to keep it going when they host the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday in Saint Paul, Minn.
The Wild (39-25-5, 83 points) are coming off a 4-0 victory against the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday. They scored three goals in the first five minutes of the game, with the trio of tallies coming less than two minutes apart.
“To see a couple go in quick like that was nice for everyone out there,” said forward Matt Boldy, who scored twice, his first goals since Feb. 22. “So, we just gotta keep that going and keep playing great offensive hockey. We’ve done a great job on the defensive side, but hopefully that kind of breaks the seal a little bit and see a little bit more goals go in.”
The Wild have scored a combined seven goals in their past two games after getting outscored 15-7 in their previous five, a stretch in which they dropped four of five (1-3-1).
Minnesota enters the contest holding the first wild card from the Western Conference. The team is four points behind the Colorado Avalanche, who are third in the Central Division, and holds a game in hand on their division rival. The Avalanche play later Saturday.
The Wild could have three players return from injury against Buffalo, with coach John Hynes saying there’s a “strong possibility, but not a guarantee” that defenseman Jonas Brodin and forwards Marco Rossi and Marcus Johansson will play.
The Sabres, meanwhile, will be looking to bounce back after a disappointing 5-2 loss to the Utah Hockey Club on Thursday.
They trailed by a goal twice and tied it both times, and were trying to do so a third time after Utah took the lead late in the third period. With goalie James Reimer pulled for the extra attacker and a delayed penalty on Utah with less than two minutes to go, Tage Thompson’s pass attempt to Rasmus Dahlin missed and rolled the length of the ice into the empty net to put Buffalo (27-34-6, 60 points) down by two with 1:10 left in the game.
“I didn’t know it was a delayed penalty, or I would have just given it to them,” Thompson said. “It was kind of a scrambly play. (Had he realized it was a delayed call), I probably would have just tried to attack and shoot or make them touch it. I had a lane to Dahls to the top, and it just went through everybody. So bad play by me and even worse result.”
The situation is just the latest in what has been a frustrating season for the Sabres. They entered the campaign with hopes to end their 14-year playoff drought but will be hard pressed to even match the 84-point output of last season — which also fell below expectations after finishing a point out of the final Eastern Conference wild card in 2022-23.
Season-long struggles on the power play have contributed to the disappointing results. Lately, though, Buffalo has turned things around with the man-advantage, going 5-for-14 over the past four games, a 35.7 percent success rate.
“Our special teams the last few games have been a bright spot for us,” coach Lindy Ruff said.
–Field Level Media
