The Wild hold on for a 5-4 victory over Buffalo.
By Joe Yerdon / NHL.com Correspondent
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Mikael Granlund and Nino Niederreiter each scored two goals to help lead the Minnesota Wild to a 5-4 win at KeyBank Center on Wednesday night to extend the Buffalo Sabres losing streak to 7 games.
Granlund’s first goal gave the Wild a 2-1 lead at 12:28 of the first period when he took a wrist shot on a 2-on-1 and beat Chad Johnson.
Niederreiter made it 3-1 with a power-play goal at 14:28 of the first when he redirected a shot by Mikko Koivu past Johnson.
Johnson was replaced by Robin Lehner after the first period. Johnson made 10 saves on 13 shots; Lehner made 19 saves.
The Wild (10-8-3) had lost two straight games.
Jordan Nolan scored his first two goals of the season for the Sabres (5-13-4), who have lost seven straight (0-5-2).
After Nolan’s first goal as a member of the Sabres cut the Wild lead to 3-2 at 2:01 of the second, Niederreiter’s second goal made it 4-2 at 7:57.
Granlund’s second of the game made it 5-2 on the power play at 15:56 of the second period when he tipped a shot by Koivu through Lehner’s legs.
Sam Reinhart made it 5-3 at 18:25 of the second when he tipped a pass by Jake McCabe past Dubnyk for his 100th NHL point. Nolan’s second goal made it 5-4 at 13:55 of the third period.
Jack Eichel gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead at 6:55 of the first period when he poked a Jason Pominville rebound past Devan Dubnyk, who made 30 saves.
Former Sabres forward Tyler Ennis made it 1-1 2:04 later with his fourth goal after a pass from Marcus Foligno.
It was the first time the Sabres and Wild faced each other since a June 30 trade in which Ennis and Foligno were traded to Minnesota in exchange for Pominville and defenseman Marco Scandella.