NHL - Buffalo Sabres @ Minnesota Wild 2-1 - Tuesday, November 01, 2016

Ryan O'Reilly and Johan Larsson scored to end Devan Dubnyk's three-game shutout streak, and the Buffalo Sabres defeated the Minnesota Wild 2-1 at Xcel Energy Center. O'Reilly ended Dubnyk's streak at 3:16 of the first period with a rebound goal for a 1-0 lead. Dubnyk's streak of 183:16 set a Wild record; he stopped 22 of 24 shots.
Brian Gionta found Larsson in the slot for the game-winner at 13:34 of the third period. The 24-year-old center has two goals in nine games this season, each a game-winner. Larsson had five game-winning goals last season, tied with Jack Eichel for the Sabres lead. Buffalo (4-3-2) has won three straight. Minnesota (6-3-1) had a four-game winning streak end. The Sabres outshot the Wild 9-6 in the first period and had five takeaways.

Minnesota tied the game 1-1 when Mikael Granlund picked up a rebound and beat Robin Lehner for a power-play goal at 17:31 of the second period. The Wild outshot the Sabres 15-7 in the second and 28-24 in the game.

* Sabres defenseman Josh Gorges worked the puck along the blue line, keeping it in the offensive zone. Gorges passed to Rasmus Ristolainen, whose shot from the point bounced off Dubnyk's pads to O'Reilly, who scored on the rebound.

* At 5:16 of the first period, Dubnyk stretched across to deny Nicholas Baptiste, barely getting his body on the puck but managing to make the save.

* On a Wild power play, Jason Pominville settled the puck at the blue line and found Eric Staal coming up the right wing. Staal put a shot on net and the rebound popped out to a wide-open Granlund. He deked and beat Lehner for the top-shelf goal.

* Gionta skated up right wing and found Larsson in the slot. Of Larsson's 18 NHL goals, seven have been game-winners.

* Sabres defenseman Zach Bogosian left the game at 14:26 of the first period. "I don't have any idea to the extent of his knee injury. It was unfortunate. He went down on the wall and his skate got caught in a rut. He had a tweak of the knee, so I don't have any idea of the prognosis right now." Bylsma said.

Wild Quotes

Devan Dubnyk: "I wasn't going to go another 80 games, so it was going to happen eventually. It's disappointing it happened on a play like that, but again, tough bounce, but it's kind of the way the night seemed to go."

Bruce Boudreau: "It was frustrating. Sometimes it's a frustrating team. It can play so good one period and not show up for the [next] period. Tonight we didn't show up in the first period, I didn't think. We had no life and no energy, and then in the second period all of a sudden we're really good, and then in the third period it was like we were playing for a tie."