Wild stopped late in overtime, falling 6-5 at Buffalo

As sharp as the Wild defense has been this season, it couldn't slow one of the NHL's highest-scoring teams, and Minnesota fell to the Sabres 6-5 in overtime Saturday night at KeyBank Center to kick off a weekend back-to-back with just its third loss in the past 12 games.

"How good they are offensively in the league, they proved that," Wild coach Dean Evason told reporters in Buffalo. "Maybe we wanted to prove how good we are, but that's not who we are. We traded chances with them and in the end got burned by it."

How the Wild lost: Buffalo's Victor Olofsson delivered the fifth and final go-ahead goal with 19 seconds left in 3-on-3 overtime, his second tally of the night that bookended a track meet that was especially end-to-end during the extended action.

Buffalo's Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen fended off six shots from the Wild, including a breakaway by Jonas Brodin after Brodin blocked a shot to help create the chance. But Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury was just as locked in, stretching out for a pad save on Alex Tuch before consecutive saves against Jeff Skinner.

Not until Olofsson's slapper on a 3-on-2 setup did the Sabres finally solve Fleury, who was playing in his 964th game to take sole possession of fifth place all time in games played among NHL goaltenders. Fleury finished with 31 stops and picked up an assist; Luukkonen racked up 39 saves.

Rasmus Dahlin's assist on Olofsson's game-winner was his fifth point of the night, which tied the Buffalo record for points in a game by a defenseman.

"They definitely swarmed us and kind of kept us on our heels," Marcus Foligno said. "It took us awhile to get to our game."

Turning point: The Wild were in extra time after coughing up a late lead en route to spoiling what could have been their first multi-goal comeback win of the season.

Their initial rally started after Olofsson opened the scoring 13 minutes into the first period; the Wild responded 2:52 into the second when Brandon Duhaime pounced on a loose puck in front in his first game back after missing 18 with an upper-body injury.

By 6:46, the Wild led after Kirill Kaprizov converted on a 5-on-3 look with a shot from between the circles for his team-leading 23rd goal.

Cue the Sabres, who took over on three goals in 3:25 from Tage Thompson (10:30), Dahlin (12:02) and Dylan Cozens (13:55).

The adversity didn't faze the Wild. Ryan Hartman batted in a puck with 1:15 remaining in the second before Foligno served up the equalizer only 26 seconds into the third period.

Then at 7:48, Joel Eriksson Ek's breakaway at 7:48 capped a solid 2-for-4 showing by the power play. Calen Addison assisted on both tallies; his 19 assists are the second most in Wild history by a rookie defenseman.

But with 2:24 to go in the third, Dahlin added another highlight to his career performance with a one-timer that sailed five-hole on Fleury.

"I give up a stupid goal at the end there, the fifth one, and they're back in the game," Fleury said. "Six-goal night, it's not good. When we score five goals, I think should be a win every time."

After the game, Evason said Fleury is going to Montreal for personal reasons and will rejoin the team for its New York road trip, which begins Tuesday vs. the Rangers.

"He'll be mad at himself for letting it go through him," Evason said, referring to Dahlin's tying goal, "but the ones that should have went in didn't because of who he is."

What it means: Going toe-to-toe with an offensive juggernaut like the Sabres almost worked for the Wild, even without Mats Zuccarello in the lineup due to an upper-body injury.

Ultimately, this outcome reinforced what does suit the Wild, and that's keeping the scoring to a minimum.

"We certainly can't play that way defensively and expect to win games," Evason said.

The Star Tribune did not send the writer of this article to the game. This was written using a broadcast, interviews and other material.