ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Owen Nolan and Antti Miettinen scored
their first goals of the preseason and the Minnesota Wild built an
early lead and held on for a 3-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on
Wednesday night.
Minnesota (4-1-0) scored on three of its five shots in the first
period. After Nolan and Miettinen - both offseason free agent
signees - built a 2-0 lead, defenseman Brent Burns was credited
with a short-handed goal when his cross-ice pass was inadvertently
swatted into the net by Sabres defenseman Teppo Numminen.
"We batted one in ourselves. We didn't make many mistakes, but
every mistake we made went in," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said.
"But we still made the mistakes. We took some needless penalties
and gave the opposition a little bit of life."
Daniel Paille scored in the second period for Buffalo (1-3-1).
After a long lead pass from Toni Lydman, Paille's rising shot beat
goaltender Josh Harding over the right shoulder.
"We played an exceptional game in the neutral zone against
them, and we had to," Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire said. "We
were really good at pressing the puck carrier as much as we
could."
Harding, who had 25 saves, left the game in the third period
after a fluke accident in front of the Minnesota net. Buffalo's
Dylan Hunter lifted the stick of Wild defenseman Martin Skoula in
the crease, causing Skolua's blade to enter the eye hole of
Harding's mask. Harding immediately dropped to the ice and was
helped off by a trainer.
"I think the tip of the blade went through his mask and hit him
in the eye," Lemaire said. "I don't know his condition right
now."
Nicklas Backstrom finished the game in goal for Minnesota,
stopping five of the six shots he faced.
Buffalo's Andrej Sekera added a power-play goal with less than a
second left in the game.
Ryan Miller had 21 saves for the Sabres.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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