How the Buffalo Sabres fared against the Wild in 2022-23

On this edition of “How They Fared”, I take you back and recap the two game season series between the Buffalo Sabres and Minnesota Wild.

On the next installment of “How They Fared“, I’m going to take you back to the two games played between the Buffalo Sabres and Minnesota Wild. The first of two games took place in KeyBank Center as the Sabres would be playing their first home game in 2023.

Seven minutes into the game, Victor Olofsson gave the Sabres the 1-0 lead. No other goals were scored and it remained the same after the first period with Buffalo having the lead. Just a couple of minutes into the start of the second period, the Wild evened up the score.

On the power play, Kirill Kaprizov would give Minnesota the 2-1 lead. Buffalo responded with a power play of their own as Tage Thompson tied the game 2-2. Rasmus Dahlin gave the lead back to the Sabres and Dylan Cozens would add onto it shortly after Dahlin’s goal.

Just as the second period was winding down, Ryan Hartman cut the Sabres lead in half and the score was 4-3 after the first 40 minutes of play. It took 26 seconds after the third period started as former Sabre and hometown boy Marcus Foligno tied the game up once again.

Yet again, the Wild regained the lead thanks to Joel Eriksson Ek. Buffalo was running out of time before Dahlin scored once again to make it 5-5. After a very entertaining 60 minutes of hockey, a winner would be decided either in overtime or a shootout.

Both teams had glorious chances and with 19 seconds remaining in overtime, Olofsson scored on a beautiful one timer and Buffalo took the victory in a thrilling game. The first meeting was a fun game and personal favorite of mine.

Buffalo Sabres and Wild had a memorable season series in 2022-23

We only had to wait three weeks for the final meeting between these two in St. Paul. With two minutes gone by in the first period, Jack Quinn gave Buffalo the early lead. It would not last long however as Eriksson Ek tied the game up on a power play.

Just about halfway into the second period, Zemgus Girgensons regained the lead for the Sabres. I sound like a broken record but Minnesota tied the game up not too long after Buffalo took the lead. No goals were scored after that and once again, the game had to be played longer than 60 minutes to determine a winner.

Unfortunately for Buffalo, they would lose this one in a shootout and Ukko Pekka Luukkonen didn’t stop one shot in the shootout despite playing awesome in the first three periods and overtime.

It was a gutsy and entertaining season series between the two teams, let’s hope we can relive it again this season!

(Historical data provided by Hockey-Reference)