"The back-to-back games, if you could have made it 3-nothing, 4-nothing, then they would have said, 'let's go home,'" Boudreau said. "But once you let a team, it's like us in St. Louis, you're exhausted, you're tired, you're back-to-back and then you come in. But if you let them hang around, fatigue leaves you. You become more into the game and wanting to win it."
Sure enough, the Sabres pulled closer on a Jake McCabe goal 14:52 into the first period.
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Unable to build on its lead in the second, Minnesota knew it had a fight on its hands. Still, it led, on home ice, with eight minutes left.
"I think we probably could have put them away earlier, the way the first period was played," said Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk. "We started turning pucks over in the second and it's not like they controlled the entire second period, but when they start getting to carry the puck up the ice and some odd-man rushes, get some feeling into the game, I think we probably could have stepped on their throats a little bit, the way the first period was going. It's always disappointing to give up a lead and especially when it's late."
With 7:02 left on the clock, rookie Rasmus Dahlin swooped in and shoveled a loose puck past Dubnyk for the tying goal. It was nothing special; a shot hit Dubnyk and took a funny bounce. Then the goaltender thought he had it smothered, only to see it squirt free.