Not much of anything went the Buffalo Sabres way tonight. They were dominated by the Minnesota Wild from the opening puck drop. Nino Niederreiter scored just 1:09 into the game to set the tone for the evening.
Just over a minute later Daniel Winnik was given a free lane to the Sabres net and beat Robin Lehner high glove to put the Wild up 2-0 just over two minutes into the game.
Things went from bad to worse when Rasmus Ristolainen was given a five minute major and game misconduct for a questionable hit on Mikko Koivu. Niederreiter scored his second of the game late in the five-minute power play to put Minnesota up 3-0 after 20 minutes.
The Wild continued to fill the net as Niederreiter completed his hat trick four minutes into the second period sitting all alone in front of the Sabres net again. This was a reoccurring theme throughout the night, along with all of the turnovers.
Koivu and Charlie Coyle would score two more goals of their own to make it 6-0 after two periods.
Chad Johnson would relieve Lehner to start the third period. The Sabres finally put one by Devan Dubnyk 1:54 into the third. Sam Reinhart cleaned up a rebound for his seventh of the season.
Evander Kane would add a meaningless goal in the final minutes as the Wild cruised to an easy 6-2 win.
Final Score: Wild 6, Sabres 2
Shots on Goal: Wild 27 | Sabres 31
Wild Goal Scorers: Niederreiter (11, 12, 13), Winnik (4), Koivu (6) and Coyle (4)
Sabres Goal Scorers: Reinhart (7) and Kane (16)
Three Stars of the Game
1. Nino Niederreiter (3 G)
2. Mikael Granlund (3 A)
3. Charlie Coyle (1 G, 1 A)
Comment of the Game
Whoops, that’s at 6-0
Eichel and Falk at -3, Josefson at 0.
Everyone else is at -2 or -1, with SIX goals against.
That’s . . . kinda amazing, really!
The main difference between hockey and basketball:
Goaltending.
by QualityPie on Jan 4, 2018 | 9:47 PM up reply rec flag actions