BUFFALO, N.Y. – If Joel Eriksson Ek wins almost every faceoff he takes, the puck keeps landing on Kirill Kaprizov's stick and the entire team winds up for 80 shots, the Wild win, right?
Wrong.
Opportunity didn't stall the Wild — their execution did. The offense bumped the defense from the hot seat after an off night inflamed the Wild's few mistakes into a 3-2 setback to the Sabres on Friday at KeyBank Center at the end of their New York road trip.
The Wild returned home with back-to-back losses in which they totaled a combined three goals.
"It's frustrating," coach Dean Evason said. "We have to score on our chances."
Buffalo goalie Devon Levi picked up 33 saves, but it was the shots he didn't stop that were a bigger blemish for the Wild.
A whopping 45 shots were either blocked by the Sabres or missed the net entirely.
"Probably trying to do a little too much," Evason said. "Probably trying to pick the corner a little bit, too."
Captain Jared Spurgeon hit the post late in the third period during his season debut after a preseason upper-body injury sidelined him the first month, and Kaprizov had not one but two attempts get thwarted before they could even make it to the net in the waning seconds to deny him of the equalizer.
Overall, he racked up four shots, as did Matt Boldy. Eriksson Ek tried seven, Mats Zuccarello six and Ryan Hartman flung five.
"They're giving it everything they can to score," Evason said. "We're getting lots of pucks on the net. We're getting quality, quality looks. They're just not going in the net right now."
And because they aren't, the miscues the other direction sting the Wild even more.
Tied 1-1 with 58 seconds to go in the second period, Buffalo's JJ Peterka tipped the puck away from Kaprizov as he readied for a point shot and sprung Jeff Skinner for a breakaway goal.
"That's what happens when you aren't scoring on the other end: those mistakes seem to pile up on you," said Spurgeon, who was activated off long-term injured reserve before the game as part of a roster update that also returned Daemon Hunt to the minors.
At 3:33 of the third, the Sabres doubled their lead when Tage Thompson fed Peterka for a one-timer.
Although the Wild responded on the power play at 12:27 when Eriksson Ek sealed his 100th career goal, they couldn't close the gap and didn't take advantage of a better performance by the defense compared to the start of the season.
"It's so tight in this league," said goalie Filip Gustavsson, who finished with 22 saves in his first appearance since getting pulled last Saturday vs. the Rangers after giving up three goals on four shots. "So many small errors is what can cause a loss. We just need to take away those."
Buffalo's first goal with 1:58 remaining in the first was a shot from up top by Henri Jokiharju that Gustavsson didn't see.
Only 1:28 later, Kaprizov one-timed in a cross-zone pass from Boldy on the power play (2-for-5); the Sabres went 0-for-4.
But then the close calls began to add up. The Wild blanked on a 3-on-1 rush and a 2-on-1 look. Even after Skinner's tiebreaker, Eriksson Ek was unsuccessful on three tries from in tight.
"I had a lot of chances," said Eriksson Ek, who tied his career high by winning 19 of 23 draws. "Of course, I want to score on those. Gotta keep doing the right things, and hopefully create more chances and if I get them, I need to score those, too."
The same can be said for the whole team, a new issue after preventing goals, not producing them, plagued the Wild earlier.
"When you're getting those chances and not putting them home, you have to make sure you're squeaky clean on the other end," Spurgeon said. "So, something we gotta clean up. But the effort that we had in the offensive zone, I thought we created chances, but we just gotta get those looks and make sure we make them count."
