In Buffalo, the Sabres’ Jeff Skinner hit for a double in the third period to help lead Buffalo to a 5-4 win over the sagging Minnesota Wild.
“I got a little lucky there,” Skinner said. “Obviously the first bounce, but then I kind of fanned on a shot. I tried to beat the goalie back and then, again, it kind of is just a big scramble and it kind of just pops right to me. I guess when we talk about sort of trying to find bounces, those are the ones that you remember. …
“(On the second goal) again, it’s a fortunate bounce, but you’ve got to put yourself in those situations. I thought ‘Tuchy’ did a great job on that one to sort of create that space.”
Craig Anderson made 29 saves in the Buffalo win.
Kirill Kaprizov struck for a pair of goals for the Wild.
The Sabres moved to 18-30-8.
Kyle Okposo and Casey Mittelstadt added single markers for the Sabres.
“I loved our third period, I don’t know what else to say,” Okposo said. “I think it’s been pretty well documented we’ve had a lot of third periods where teams have come back on us and we’ve got on our heels. … We just stayed on our toes the whole time.”
The Wild dropped to 32-18-3.
“I guess what goes around comes around,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “We get up there and we thought we’re in a pretty good spot. Teams don’t quit. We know that. We don’t quit, so I don’t care where we are, you know who we’re playing. The league’s real good.”
Ryan Hartman and Kevin Fiala also scored for Minnesota.
“Obviously special teams are a big part of it,” the Wild’s Jared Spurgeon said. “And we did get a big kill there to start it off in the third there, and a power-play goal. But earlier in the game, we’ve got to find a way to kill those.”
Skinner’s second goal of the game, and Victor Olofsson‘s strike gave the Sabres a 5-3 lead.
“I think most of the guys would tell you I’m pretty, I guess, proud of Minnesota,” Mittelstadt said. “So, yeah, that one felt good. I’ve got my parents here and a couple of other family members, so that one definitely felt good.”
Kaprizov got the Wild back to within one, at 5-4.
“I think most of the guys would tell you I’m pretty, I guess, proud of Minnesota,” Mittelstadt said. “So, yeah, that one felt good. I’ve got my parents here and a couple of other family members, so that one definitely felt good.”
Kaapo Kahkonen made 33 saves in the Minnesota loss.
“We’ve had this talk a lot of times,” Fiala said. “We want to play with the lead. … If it happens that they score the first goal, we can’t just give up. That’s a good point for our team, that we never give up. We came back now, two nights in a row, so that’s a good point. We have to figure out the starts and stuff, but like I said before, we had no panic. There are so many more games. And we have a great feeling in the room still.”
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