Niederreiter returns with hat trick, Wild cruise past Sabres

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Nino Niederreiter scored a hat trick in his return from an ankle injury, and the Minnesota Wild defeated the Buffalo Sabres 6-2 at Xcel Energy Center on Thursday.

Daniel Winnik, Mikko Koivu and Charlie Coyle also scored, and Devan Dubnyk made 29 saves for Minnesota (22-16-3), which is 4-1-0 in its past five games and 11-1-1 in its past 13 at home, where it has won four straight.
Niederreiter, who missed five games, made it 1-0 at 1:09 of the first period and scored on the power play at 13:53 to make it 3-0. He scored his third goal at 4:02 of the second period to make it 4-0. It was Niederreiter's second NHL career hat trick, each coming against Buffalo (Nov. 13, 2014).
WATCH: [All Sabres vs. Wild highlights]
"It's definitely not always going to be easy and going to be like that," Niederreiter said, "but at the same time, we played a good hockey game for most of the part. We played simple. … It was a good win for us and we've got to take the confidence we got from that game into the next one."

Winnik gave the Wild a 2-0 lead at 2:15 of the first.
Koivu, who had two assists, made it 5-0 at 13:07 of the second period with a shot from the slot. Coyle scored off a pass by Zach Parise with 45 seconds remaining in the second to make it 6-0. It was Coyle's second goal in two games, and Parise's first point of the season; he made his debut in a 5-1 win against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.
"The ability to score more [from] different people is there, and we've got a team that you almost want everybody to play the 200-foot game," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. "We don't have the [Alex] Ovechkins that can just score when they want to, it seems like, but if we get everybody playing the 200-foot game then every night it's a good chance that it's going to be a different line that scores."
Sabres forward Sam Reinhart ended the shutout at 1:54 of the third period with a backhand in the slot to make it 6-1. Evander Kane scored with 1:01 remaining to make it 6-2.
Robin Lehner made 11 saves through two periods for Buffalo (10-21-9), which lost its second straight game. Chad Johnson made 10 saves in relief.

The Sabres, who were coming off a 3-2 loss to the New York Rangers in the Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic on Monday in New York, are 1-2-2 in their past five games and 2-4-3 in their past nine. They have scored two goals or fewer in 12 of their past 17 games and have been shut out four times in that span.
"I think our urgency without the puck obviously was not there tonight," Sabres coach Phil Housley said. "…That's just not the way we have been playing and we got away from that."

Goal of the game

Niederreiter's goal at 1:09 of the first period.

Save of the game

Dubnyk's save on Marco Scandella at 2:41 of the second period.

Highlight of the game

Niederreiter's goal at 4:02 of the second.

They said it

"It was really nothing that Minnesota did -- they capitalized on their opportunities I'll give them credit -- but it was what we gave them. We gave them too much, we left too much on the table when we didn't have to. Playing on the road like this against a good team fighting for a playoff spot, we knew they were going to try to come and we've just got to be smart about it and tonight we weren't." -- Sabres coach Phil Housley
"You have to be able to push and get the team to have that killer instinct. In the second period I told them before, I said, 'You can make this easy on yourselves or you can make it tough on yourselves.' They went out and scored the fourth goal and I think that was the goal that broke their back a little bit." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau

Need to know

Sabres defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen was given a game misconduct at 10:16 of the first period for a hit to Koivu's head. … Granlund had an NHL career-high three assists. … Dubnyk took sole possession of second place on the Wild wins list with 114, passing Manny Fernandez. Niklas Backstrom is first with 194.

What's next

Wild: At the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday (9 p.m. ET; ALT, FS-N+, NHL.TV)
Sabres: At the Winnipeg Jets on Friday (8 p.m. ET; MSG-B, TSN3, NHL.TV)