Wild cruise to easy victory over Sabres

Mats Zuccarello had a goal and an assist for the Minnesota Wild in a 4-1 win against the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.

Marco Rossi, Justin Brazeau and Frederick Gaudreau also scored for the Wild (40-25-5, 85 points), who have won three in a row. Matt Boldy had two assists, and Filip Gustavsson made 20 saves.

JJ Peterka scored and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 17 saves for the Sabres (27-35-6, 60 points), who have dropped two straight after winning three of four.

Rossi snapped an 11-game goal drought to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead 56 seconds into the second period. Vinnie Hinostroza beat Buffalo defenseman Owen Power to the puck in the corner and sent a short backhand feed to Yakov Trenin. Trenin spotted Rossi alone in front for a quick wrist shot that beat Luukkonen blocker side.

Brazeau scored on a delayed penalty against the Sabres to make it to 2-0 at 5:07. Brendan Gaunce took a feed from Boldy but was denied by Luukkonen on his short-side attempt from below the left circle. The rebound landed in the crease, and Brazeau got his skate in its path to deflect it into the net.

The call on the ice withstood a quick review to determine if Brazeau had kicked the puck in.

Zuccarello then extended it to 3-0 at 8:11. Boldy was first to a bouncing puck entering the zone and was able to maintain possession before dishing a short feed to a trailing Zuccarello, who fired a wrist shot high glove side past Luukkonen.

Peterka spoiled Gustavsson's shutout bid with his second in as many games at 6:48 of the third period. With the teams at 4-on-4, Power took a drop pass from Rasmus Dahlin and quickly dished it over to Peterka, who took it to the inner side of the right circle and wired it far side on Gustavsson to cut it to 3-1.

Gaudreau scored an empty-net goal at 19:27 for the 4-1 final.

Buffalo forward Sam Lafferty left the game late in the second period and did not return.

--Field Level Media