Justin Brazeau Filip Gustavsson Marco Rossi Buffalo Sabres Minnesota Wild Mats Zuccarello Aasen Alex Tuch Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen Jonas Brodin Matthew Boldy Frederick Gaudreau Kirill Kaprizov Yakov Trenin Minnesota NHL Colorado NHL hockey J-J Peterka Sports Mikko Koivu Tage Thompson
# Wild use 3-goal second period to beat Sabres 4-1

By Mike Cook  
March 22nd, 2025 08:44 PM

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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Marco Rossi, Justin Brazeau, Mats Zuccarello and Frederick Gaudreau scored, and the Minnesota Wild beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-1 on Saturday.

Comfortably in the Western Conference first wild-card spot, Minnesota moved within two points of third-place Colorado in the Central Division. The Wild finished a season-long seven-game homestand 4-2-1.

Filip Gustavsson improved to 6-2-1 in March by making 20 saves. He has a 1.65 goals-against average, a .941 save percentage and two shutouts this month.

JJ Peterka scored and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 17 shots for Buffalo, which lost its second straight game and is 3-8-1 in its past 12 outings.

Netting his career-high 22nd goal of the season, Rossi converted a pass from Yakov Trenin less than a minute into the middle period for his first goal in 12 games. Brazeau scored his first goal with the Wild about four minutes later. He was acquired from Boston on March 6.

Zuccarello converted a feed from Matt Boldy, who had two assists, to make it 3-0 before the period's midway point.

## Takeaways

Sabres: Peterka has goals in back-to-back games since returning Thursday. He missed three games with a lower-body injury.

Wild: D Jonas Brodin returned after missing the past nine games with a lower-body injury.

## Key moment

Gustavsson slid across the crease to stop Alex Tuch on an early Buffalo power-play and made a toe save on Tage Thompson a few minutes later to keep the game scoreless after his team was badly outplayed in the opening 20 minutes.

## Key stat

Per NHL Stats, Boldy's two assists give him at least 60 points in three straight seasons, tying Zuccarello (2021-24), Kirill Kaprizov (2021-24) and Mikko Koivu (2008-11) for the longest run in Wild history.

## Up next

Buffalo wraps up a four-game road trip Sunday at Winnipeg. Minnesota is at Dallas on Monday.

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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL