It was a game of huge swings Saturday night in Buffalo and it was the home team that beat the Minnesota Wild 6-5 in a thrilling overtime that featured incredible saves by both goaltenders and the game-winning goal by Victor Olofsson with 19 seconds left on the clock.
🚨 GOALOFSSON 🚨#LetsGoBuffalo | @vickeo pic.twitter.com/1rPFwuezEU
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) January 8, 2023
Moments before the winning goal, Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was superhuman with a trio of incredible saves, including this sprawling save when the Sabres raced at him in a two-on-one situation.
FLEURY IS A BRICK WALL 🧱#mnwild | #NHL pic.twitter.com/Q6RAVvX7On
— FanDuel Sports Network North (@FanDuelSN_NOR) January 8, 2023
Olofsson’s 14th goal of the season had the Sabres up 1-0 after one period. Minnesota responded with two goals less than four minutes apart from Brandon Duhaime and Kirill Kaprizov (his 23rd of the season) to take a 2-1 lead early in the second period.
BRB printing Dolla Bill Kirills đź’¸#mnwild pic.twitter.com/c7V624g34p
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) January 8, 2023
Buffalo then turned on the jets and netted three goals in a span of 3 minutes, 25 seconds to go up 4-2 before Ryan Hartman cut the lead to 4-3 with 1:35 left in the middle period.
Knock knock Hartzy has arrived 🚪#mnwild pic.twitter.com/wFv7mflCDs
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) January 8, 2023
Then just 26 seconds in the third period Marcus Foligno scored the tying goal. And Joel Eriksson Ek scored to put the Wild up 5-4 with 12:12 left in regulation. Minnesota held that lead until Rasmus Dahlin’s second goal of the night went through the legs of Marc-Andre Fleury to make it 5-5 with 2:24 to go.
POWER PLAY JEEK: ACTIVATE 🤑 #mnwild pic.twitter.com/3Gaf0Ijhrl
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) January 8, 2023
Minnesota is now 22-13-3 with 47 points, just four points behind second place Winnipeg and five points behind first place Dallas in the Central Division.
