Takeaways: Wild’s winning streak ends at seven with shootout loss to Sabres

The Wild got the better of the best team in the NHL then were upset by a bottom-five foe.

After a thrilling shootout victory over the league-leading Avalanche a day earlier, the Wild were downed by two bad breaks en route to getting dumped 3-2 in a shootout by the lowly Sabres on Saturday night at Grand Casino Arena to snap their seven-game winning streak.

“There’s no easy teams in the NHL,” Wild center Nico Sturm said. “We all know that, but that’s a challenge in this league to show up 24 hours or less sometimes when your emotions come from the highest highs to the lowest lows.”

Buffalo’s Tage Thompson, Jack Quinn and Noah Ostlund capitalized in the four-round shootout after the Sabres rallied on two unusual goals: The first went in off traffic in front of Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson and the second hit Mats Zuccarello’s glove as he tried to catch the puck and flew into the net.

Earlier, Kirill Kaprizov scored for a fifth consecutive game, burying a Zuccarello pass that counted as Zuccarello’s 700th career point. Matt Boldy also had a goal for the Wild off a strong individual effort, the winger forcing a turnover then carting the puck to the net for his 15th goal.

Gustavsson stopped 30 shots, and Colten Ellis finished with 22 saves for Buffalo.

“I thought I played fine throughout the whole game except the shootout,” Gustavsson said. “I lost my patience a little bit. I didn’t hold my edges long enough there, and then they saw that and went around me.”

In the aftermath of such a competitive clash with Colorado, the Wild taking on a much-less potent Sabres squad felt sleepy, but the Wild were tested.

They capitalized on a pretty passing play 9 minutes, 37 seconds into the first period when Danila Yurov handed off to Zuccarello, who threaded a cross-zone pass to Kaprizov for a one-timer that he drained behind Ellis.

Kaprizov’s 17 goals are third in the league, and he has seven of those during a seven-game point streak.

With the setup, Zuccarello became only the third undrafted NHLer to debut in the last 30 years and reach 700 points.

Only 3:05 after Kaprizov’s goal, the Buffalo retaliated when the rebound of Peyton Krebs’ shot bounced off a sea of bodies and behind Gustavsson; the goal was credited to Beck Malenstyn, who was part of a four-player wall in front of the net that included both Wild defenders.

The Wild regained control quickly, with Boldy picking the puck off Alex Tuch and wiring it by Ellis at 14:05 of the first, and that 2-1 advantage held through the second period.

The Sabres kept pressuring the Wild, who were bit by an own goal in the third period for the second equalizer: Buffalo’s Josh Doan’s shot went off the end boards and Zuccarello tried to catch the carom, but instead the puck bounced off his glove and tumbled into the Wild net.

“It was an unlucky goal when I put it in the net,” Zuccarello said. “But when you’re not at your best, you’re gonna lose in this league. Every team is a good team.”

The Wild had a chance to regroup on the power play but blanked to go 0-for-3, same as the Sabres, whose momentum sustained them through a goalless overtime to the shootout.

There, Zuccarello was denied before Boldy and Kaprizov scored. In the fourth round, Vladimir Tarasenko went wide in his return to the lineup after missing seven games with a lower-body injury. Only Tuch missed for Buffalo.

The Wild’s 24 points in November (11-1-2) are the most for the month in team history.

BOXSCORE: Buffalo 3, Wild 2 (SO)

NHL standings

The drop-off from Friday’s showdown with the Avalanche to Saturday’s snoozer vs. the Sabres — in precision, excitement, you name it — was palpable.

But the juxtaposition was a timely lesson for the Wild: No matter how impressive their performance against Colorado was, it was still only one game, and it carried the same point value in the standings as the next.

Now, their challenge will be rediscovering that rhythm.

“That’s where we got to grow as a team,” Hynes said. “It’s the willingness and the attitude to put that same game on the ice, night in and night out. Teams that can win regularly in the league, in the regular season have that.

“So, I thought we had it to start the game. But we didn’t have it sustained for 60 minutes, and that’s the growth we got to get to.”