The Buffalo Sabres were back at home Friday night, in a matchup with the Minnesota Wild that they would win 3-2.

Buffalo’s offense stayed consistent throughout the game, scoring once in each period to lift Buffalo to a home victory.

Further, the defense was able to hold Minnesota to just two goals over the night, which was in large part thanks to goaltender Devon Levi who stopped 33 of 35 shots against.

In the end, Buffalo held on to win a tight one 3-2, which helps the team improve to a winning record for the first time this year.

Recap

1st period

Buffalo would start the game with an early power play opportunity, but would end up unsuccessful.

After a few uneventful minutes, the two teams started to get their offenses going, but again the game would stay scoreless, thanks to some good goaltending from both sides.

Late in the period, Sabres defensemen Owen Power would pass the puck to fellow defensemen Henri Jokiharju, who would blast a puck past Minnesota goaltender Filip Gustavsson to give Buffalo a 1-0 lead.

However, this lead would be short lived, as Buffalo would give up a late penalty and on the power play superstar forward Kirill Kaprizov would score his second of the season to tie the game at one through the first period.

2nd period

Minnesota started the second period with some high-quality chances, but again Sabres Devon Levi was able to make key saves to keep the game tied.

In the middle portion of the period, neither side could pull away, as both teams defenses started to take over the game.

Despite this, the Sabres would find away to break through late, as Jeff Skinner would get a breakaway opportunity and score with less than a minute left in the period, sending Buffalo into the intermission with a one-goal lead.

3rd period

The Sabres would continue to swing the momentum in their favor early in the third, applying some pressure to Minnesota before finally cashing in on a beautiful play that was finished by J.J. Peterka, giving Buffalo a 3-1 lead.

After this goal, Buffalo’s defense started to play more conservatively, holding on to the lead with less than 10 minutes to go.

However, Minnesota was able to generate enough chances to finally score, when Kirill Kaprizov made a pass across to Joel Eriksson Ek that beat Levi to bring them back to within one.

Despite this last push from Minnesota, they were unable to complete the comeback falling 3-2 in the end.

Takeaways

Buffalo played a great game in this one, as both the offense and defense looked good.

Goaltender Devon Levi also performed very well, despite the high volume of shots against.

While the special teams didn’t look all that good, the team was able to hold off a late comeback from Minnesota.

With the victory, Buffalo improves to 7-6-1 on the season, which is the team’s first record above .500 in 2023.

Buffalo will have to turn the page quickly, as the team gets set for their matchup with the Pittsburgh Penguins on the road Saturday night.