The Minnesota Wild held off the Buffalo Sabres Wednesday night in a 5-4 win. The loss was the Sabr4s’ seventh straight.
Mikael Granlund and Nino Niederreiter scored two goals each in the win
.
“He (Niederreiter) goes to the net and he’s hungry,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. “He’s not going to get a million beautiful goals, but he’s going to get the greasy ones in front of the net and that’s what he does.”
The win snapped a two-game skid by the Wild.
“We all know we can play better,” Granlund said. “At the same time, we got the win and that’s all we need right now. These kinds of games happen and we’ve just got to move on and get ready for the next one.”
Jordan Nolan scored twice for the Sabres.
“It’s a game of mistakes, and it’s decisions and choices at the wrong time of the game,” Sabres coach Phil Housley said. “We get the first goal [and] all we have to do is continue to stay the course. It’s one mistake here, one mistake there that guys are making the wrong choices and not playing the right way.”
Sam Reinhart scored for Buffalo and Jack Eichel managed to find the scoresheet early in the game.
Tyler Ennis. a former Sabres player, also scored for Minnesota.
“It’s funny how it all works out,” Ennis said. “I’ve had so many chances, breakaways, posts the last little while here and just a shot from a tough angle goes in.”
[WATCH: All Wild vs. Sabres highlights]
Chad Johnson got the start for Buffalo but was given the hook in the first intermission; Robin Lehner finished the game.
Johnson was touched for three goals on 13 shots in the opening frame.
“We’ve had talks. We’ve had video sessions. Again, that’s not on coaching, it’s on us. They can’t change it. It’s got to be us,” Jason Pominville said after the loss. “It’s got to come from us. We’ve got to be better and I believe that we have the capability to do it but, again, everyone’s got to look themselves in the mirror and pull up their sleeves and be better.
“Right now it’s not happening and we’ve got to put this behind us and move forward because what’s behind us isn’t even close to being good enough.”
The Sabres showed some character in the loss being down late and trying to rally. But this team is going nowhere fast.
The seven-game skid is coming as other clubs are beginning to find their own games after slow starts and pushing the Sabres deeper into a hole that has no view of even a wild card spot at this moment.
With a quarter of the season gone, Buffalo is a roster without a team.
You must be logged in to post a comment.