St. Paul, Minn. (WGR 550) – OK, I will tell you straight up: I didn’t have Henri Jokiharju scoring the overtime goal to give the Buffalo Sabres a 3-2 win over the Minnesota Wild.
Not only did Jokiharju score the game-winning goal, he put himself in prime scoring position in the slot to win it when Alex Tuch gave him a pass right in his wheelhouse. He hit a loaded one-timer that beat Wild netminder Filip Gustavsson.
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This was one of those games where Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had to stand on his head, and the rest of the team had to find a way to win. Luukkonen made 30 saves to help get Buffalo the win.
Both goaltenders were spectacular for the first 40 minutes of the game.
Early in the third period, Minnesota native Casey Mittelstadt came down the right wing, leading a 2-on-1 with Dylan Cozens. I asked him if he was using Cozens as a decoy, because I thought it looked like Gustavsson thought he was going to pass.
"I thought I was going to pass too," said Mittelstadt with a laugh during his postgame comments.
Mittelstadt shot the puck instead, and Buffalo had a 1-0 lead just 39 seconds into the third period.
Joel Eriksson-Ek broke Luukkonen’s shutout streak at 105:59 with his 25th goal of the season.
Connor Clifton has done a terrific job of turning around his season, but this just wasn’t his night. He got a four-minute high sticking penalty, and had Buffalo shorthanded three different times on Saturday.
Buffalo was 16 seconds away from killing all six minutes of penalty time from Clifton, but ended up falling behind, 2-1, with 8:39 left to go.
It stayed that way until Luukkonen was pulled for the extra attacker.
Tage Thompson knew he had former Wild winger Jordan Greenway and Cozens at the crease, and quickly wristed the puck there. Greenway wouldn’t be denied, and got the puck through Gustavsson.
Just as the puck got to the goal line, Cozens tapped it into the open cage with just 37 seconds left.
The Sabres were sloppier in this game than they have been lately, forcing Luukkonen into facing numerous outnumbered situations.
Saturday's win was Buffalo’s third in-a-row on the road.
Greenway was a little emotional after the Wild ran a video tribute to him in his first game back. The fans cheered for him after the video, but it was all boos after the tying goal.
The Sabres will be back at it with a 12:30 p.m. EST game on Monday against the Anaheim Ducks back in Buffalo.
