Wild use 3-goal second period to beat Sabres 4-1
Marco Rossi, Justin Brazeau, Mats Zuccarello and Frederick Gaudreau scored, and the Minnesota Wild beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-1 on Saturday.
Comfortably in the Western Conference first wild-card spot, Minnesota moved within two points of third-place Colorado in the Central Division. The Wild finished a season-long seven-game homestand 4-2-1.
Filip Gustavsson improved to 6-2-1 in March by making 20 saves. He has a 1.65 goals-against average, a .941 save percentage and two shutouts this month.
JJ Peterka scored and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 17 shots for Buffalo, which lost its second straight game and is 3-8-1 in its past 12 outings.
Netting his career-high 22nd goal of the season, Rossi converted a pass from Yakov Trenin less than a minute into the middle period for his first goal in 12 games. Brazeau scored his first goal with the Wild about four minutes later. He was acquired from Boston on March 6.
Zuccarello converted a feed from Matt Boldy, who had two assists, to make it 3-0 before the period's midway point.
Sabres: Peterka has goals in back-to-back games since returning Thursday. He missed three games with a lower-body injury.
Wild: D Jonas Brodin returned after missing the past nine games with a lower-body injury.
Gustavsson slid across the crease to stop Alex Tuch on an early Buffalo power-play and made a toe save on Tage Thompson a few minutes later to keep the game scoreless after his team was badly outplayed in the opening 20 minutes.
Per NHL Stats, Boldy's two assists give him at least 60 points in three straight seasons, tying Zuccarello (2021-24), Kirill Kaprizov (2021-24) and Mikko Koivu (2008-11) for the longest run in Wild history.
Buffalo wraps up a four-game road trip Sunday at Winnipeg. Minnesota is at Dallas on Monday.
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