The Minnesota Wild tried to score another come-from-behind win on Friday night. But despite a pair of goals from Kirill Kaprizov, the Wild couldn’t complete the comeback, falling to the Buffalo Sabres 5-4.
The night got off to a rough start when Marcus Foligno was called for a goaltender interference penalty after he was thrown into Buffalo goalie Craig Anderson. The Sabres took advantage of the questionable call, getting a goal from Casey Mittelstadt on the ensuing power play.
The Wild responded later in the first period when Ryan Hartman scored his third goal in the past two nights. But Buffalo took the lead back in the second period when Kyle Okposo scored another power-play goal to put the Sabres ahead 2-1.
Minnesota had several chances to tie the game later in the second period. But after Hartman and Jared Spurgeon hit the post, Kaapo Kahkonen had to come up with a sprawling save to keep it a one-goal game going into the third.
IT'S KAAPO'S WORLD AND WE'RE JUST LIVING IN IT pic.twitter.com/GZ8ejm80IM
— Hockey Wilderness (@hockeywildernes) March 5, 2022
The Wild finally broke through when Kevin Fiala tied the game with his 18th goal of the year. After drawing even, Kaprizov gave Minnesota its first lead of the night with a power-play goal.
🔙🔛🔝
Kirill picks up the power-play goal and the @mnwild lead Buffalo 3-2 in the third period. pic.twitter.com/c26txnOv4F
— FanDuel Sports Network North (@FanDuelSN_NOR) March 5, 2022
Kaprizov’s 25th goal of the year put the Wild in line to earn their 16th comeback victory of the season but in the end, the puck just didn’t bounce the Wild’s way.
jeff skinner takes advantage of an extremely weird bounce off the boards. tie game. pic.twitter.com/2juonx2YB4
— Hockey Wilderness (@hockeywildernes) March 5, 2022
A strange carom off the end boards allowed Jeff Skinner to tie the game with his 22nd goal of the year. With 3:20 to go, Skinner scored his second goal of the night to put Buffalo ahead for good.
Victor Olafsson added an empty-net goal before Kaprizov scored with just over 31 seconds to go. But the Wild dug too deep of a hole and suffered a season sweep at the hands of the Sabres.
Coming off another deflating loss, the Wild will return to St. Paul to take on the Dallas Stars on Sunday afternoon.
