BUFFALO, N.Y. — This is why betting on sports is dangerous.
The Buffalo Sabres, with wins in 15 of their past 17 games, have been the hottest team in the NHL since Dec. 9. So anybody who saw the Minnesota Wild’s lineup Saturday afternoon and realized the team, in the midst of a losing skid, was suddenly missing its entire second line and two veteran defensemen would have thrown their house, car and entire bank account on the Sabres.
They would be dead broke if they did.
Naturally, it was the Wild who snatched two points from the jaws of defeat during a Kids Day matinee at KeyBank Center when they overcame blowing a two-goal lead by tying the score on a Quinn Hughes blast late in the second before Mats Zuccarello’s second overtime winner in 10 days lifted the Wild to a 5-4 overtime win.
The victory in the first game of a three-game trip that continues with back-to-back games in Toronto and Montreal was a good response to a winless three-game homestand.
“This is the stuff that builds teams, builds momentum,” said former Sabre Marcus Foligno, a Buffalo native, of missing Joel Eriksson Ek, Matt Boldy, Marcus Johansson, Jonas Brodin and Zach Bogosian. “We talked about it, Hynsie talked about it. It’s a building block game really. We came in as an underdog, really, tonight.
“We miss those guys obviously, dearly, but we’re not looking at excuses. That’s not the way we are … around here.”
Foligno was referring to a pregame speech delivered by coach John Hynes, where he told players not to think about the injured players left behind in Minnesota and only about the guys on the trip and who’s going to step up in their absence.
“Guys bought in to it,” Hynes said. “We have capable players. We have guys that are in our lineup and hockey’s the game we all love, but winning is our business. We’re expected to win, regardless of who’s in the lineup, so we needed to go out there and prove it, and the guys stuck to the plan of what we wanted to do. You don’t win the game unless the guys are willing to do what it takes and play the game that gives you a chance that night, and they certainly did that tonight.”
Kirill Kaprizov assisted on three goals, including Zuccarello’s eighth career overtime winner. It came with one second left in a Peyton Krebs penalty with 14 seconds left in the third period that carried over to OT. After Mattias Samuelsson checked Kaprizov off the puck and cleared the zone, Filip Gustavsson alertly gathered the puck and made a long headman pass to Kaprizov to catch some tired penalty killers changing.
“Usually in the second period and then the overtime, they always have long shifts,” said Gustavsson, who made nine saves in the third period after allowing four goals on Buffalo’s first 15 shots. “Especially here, you have the bench on the left side. Kirill likes to be up there and just give him the puck and he dishes it over to Zuccy, and Zuccy finishes.”
Like the winner in Seattle on Jan. 8, Zuccarello buried Kaprizov’s setup.
“He’s sniper actually,” Kaprizov said jokingly of the longtime playmaker. “I don’t know why he don’t score so many. He always try make some passes, but I know he has a great shot and he should shoot more.”
Zuccarello kidded to The Athletic, “People don’t know because I haven’t shot that many shots in my career, so maybe I should start shooting now. Maybe score some more goals.”
Hughes, Zuccarello and Vladimir Tarasenko had a goal and an assist each, and the Wild got goals from Foligno and Ryan Hartman. Gustavsson finished with 20 saves.
Impressive first period for the Wild
In a penalty-filled first period, the Wild weathered being down two men for the second game in a row. With the score 1-1, Gustavsson made two saves, including a sliding robbery on Tage Thompson’s one-timer.
Then, after Hughes evaded Josh Doan’s defense and skated down the left-wing boards, he crossed a pass through the crease for Hartman’s go-ahead goal with 7 1/2 seconds left for a 2-1 lead. This was after Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen robbed Hartman earlier in the period.
What was most impressive is the Wild didn’t lose their marbles earlier in the period when, after Foligno scored the first goal of the game (the 30th time this season the Wild have opened the scoring —— tied for second in the NHL), Ryan McLeod had a centering pass by Jack Quinn deflect in off his skate with Vinnie Hinostroza stranded as the only Wild player back after Brock Faber’s ill-advised pinch sent Buffalo in alone.
Why was he stranded?
In a game that featured some soft penalty calls that caused Hynes to unload on referee Jordan Samuels-Thomas in the second period after a holding penalty on Danila Yurov, Hughes couldn’t get back in the play because he was wrestled to the ice in the offensive zone and held there by Michael Kesselring. Both refs ignored it.
Foligno tried to fight Kesselring in response, but the linesmen wouldn’t allow it after the goal, and each got unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. After serving the penalties, they emerged from their respective boxes and scrapped.
“I mean, it’s Hughsie, right, so never see anyone take advantage of him,” Foligno said. “He’s a great guy. Kudos to Kesselring for just obliging, and it was one of those things where I don’t think that’s ever happened to me where you get scored on when you’re squaring up. It was a funny, weird incident, and we were like, ‘I gotta still do this thing.’ So, we said, ‘We’ll get out of the box, we’ll just go.’”
Wild surrender two-goal lead
In the second period, the Wild almost instantly jumped out to a two-goal lead when a couple of patient plays by Yurov and Jared Spurgeon set up Tarasenko’s ninth goal of the season.
But after getting two chances in a row to extend their lead to 3-1, the Wild gave up three goals in a row in a span of six minutes.
First, Samuelsson picked off Spurgeon’s clear after a defensive-zone faceoff arising from Hartman’s icing. Krebs deflected it past Gustavsson. Then, less than 90 seconds later, a bad shift by the fourth line and soft play in front of the net resulted in Quinn’s tying goal.
But right after the Wild killed a David Jiricek minor, Yurov was called for “holding,” and Alex Tuch beat Gustavsson just inside the post. That’s when Hynes called Samuels-Thomas over for a shouting match. But the players never lost composure.
“I think there’s times where you know the coach can express how he feels and things to the ref, where the team doesn’t have to,” Hynes said. “But I think we stayed focused, and that’s a big part of what we’ve talked about the last couple years, is having the discipline … . Sometimes you can’t control it, but overall it’s controlling what we can control, and I thought we did a good job of that tonight.”
Less than a minute later, Hughes took a big windup and beat Luukkonen with his first goal with the Wild since his debut Dec. 14 to tie the score at 4-4.
“Honestly I just feel like I’ve had chances to score, Grade-A’s every game, and it just hasn’t gone for me,” Hughes said. “And there’s years like last year, the year before that, it was going for me. Had a lot of good bounces over the years, and I just feel like I needed one.”
Added Hynes, “You saw the puck on his stick, and he basically shot it through the net, which was good. We needed a big game from him, and we got one.”
Moose loves scoring in Buffalo
Foligno’s sister, Cara, works for the Sabres in marketing, and Foligno and his dad, Mike, played for the Sabres, so he got to have dinner with his dad and his sister’s daughter and son Friday night.
“She had a little event with the ’06 alumni team (Friday),” Foligno said. “That was pretty special yesterday, and then my dad drove down from Sudbury, so we just took my niece and nephew and had dinner and hung out at her house until she got back. So, it was good to see everyone.”
Mike Foligno stayed for the game, and Marcus said it never gets old scoring in front of his dad and in Buffalo.
“No, never,” he said. “I think it’s extra special, especially (since) we both played for this organization. So, yeah, I think he’ll have a lot of good things to say tonight.”
Injury updates
So much for like a week or two of being mostly healthy.
With the Wild, injuries come in waves, so it was revealed before the game that not only were Boldy, Eriksson Ek, Brodin and Bogosian not on the trip, but also Johansson didn’t make the three-game trip.
Hynes said he was drinking coffee at home before Friday’s flight when he got word that something was bothering Johansson and he needed to get examined by the medical staff.
“I haven’t heard anything more,” Hynes said. “I was getting ready to pack, and next thing you know, I get, ‘He’s out. He’s not coming. This has changed. That’s changed,’ and it all happened (Friday) morning.”
Hynes expects Boldy to be out a week or two. He’s had something nagging for a little bit, and “It came to a head,” Hynes said.
Hynes thought Eriksson Ek was close to returning, and they thought he was progressing, but there’s a set timeline for his lower-body injury and he wasn’t ready for the trip. Brodin remains week to week, and the Wild should know more in the next couple of days. As for Bogosian, it’s a pain-tolerance thing, so if anybody had a chance to perhaps meet the team in Toronto or Montreal, it’d be him.
