Wild coach Bruce Boudreau considered the upcoming schedule that saw his team face Central Division rivals in the next three games.
He also realized all but one NHL team was in action Wednesday, meaning a chunk of points were going to be doled out.
And since Boudreau doesn't want the Wild to fall behind the pack of teams clumped together in the standings, he decided the Wild had to win against the Sabres.
So he shortened his bench, sitting defenseman Mike Reilly in the third period.
"I was the one that said, 'Just play to win,'" Boudreau said. "If we had to play two defensemen, we would have. I thought this was an important game for us to win."
Boudreau's strategy worked, as the Wild outlasted the Sabres 5-4 to sit 10-8-3 (23 points) before the team's critical three-game set against the Avalanche, Blues and Jets.
Reilly, who was on the ice for two of the Sabres' goals and committed a pair of penalties, was the only one who didn't earn a shift in the third, but a handful of players' minutes got cut in the period – including Reilly's defensive partner Gustav Olofsson and the fourth line.
"They're young," Boudreau said of Reilly and Olofsson. "You gotta keep throwing them into the fire. That's the only way they're going to get better. If you completely sit them all the time, then they're going to be like that every game. Sometimes you have to take your lumps and keep playing them."
