Wild Warmup: Minnesota at Buffalo

The essentials

The Wild Warmup is presented by Bryant Heating and Cooling
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Off a victory Thursday night in Philadelphia, the Wild will try and continue its winning ways Friday when it plays the second of back-to-back games at KeyBank Center against the Buffalo Sabres.
The Wild rallied from four separate one-goal deficits to earn the victory, doing so for the second time this season. Minnesota became just the third team in NHL history to accomplish the feat, joining the 1985-86 North Stars and the 1989-90 Pittsburgh Penguins.
"We know we're a really good team, it just hasn't been going our way lately," said Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin. "You just try and stay positive and stay together and get through this together. I think every team has dips in the year, but like I said before, it's really hard to win in this league."
Brodin's goal late in the third period was the game-winning tally and came after Matt Boldy's tying goal 25 seconds earlier.
The win snapped a four-game losing skid for the Wild, which was coming off consecutive losses to the Calgary Flames.
"[Wild GM Bill Guerin] said it's going to take a grinding game to come out of something like this and it did," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "Although again we thought we were really good in a lot of areas of the game, we weren't so good in a lot of areas of the game. We just had to keep going. They stayed together, which was a really key point."

Ryan Hartman scored a pair of goals for the Wild, snapping a seven-game goal drought. Freddy Gaudreau also scored for Minnesota, which was tied 2-2 after one period and trailed 4-3 headed to the third before its quick burst of offense.
Cam Talbot made 26 saves, including a number of key stops late in the game after the Wild rallied to take the lead with just over seven minutes remaining in regulation.
"There was no panic from our goaltender out there," Evason said.
The Wild will have its work cut out Friday in the second game of a back-to-back. Jared Spurgeon, who played in his 744th NHL game on Thursday night, setting a new franchise record for defensemen, missed a chunk of the first period after taking a puck to the face. He did return at the start of the second period, but his absence, as well as the tight-knit nature of the contest, did add significant minutes to some of the Wild's top players.
Up front, Hartman, Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello each played more than 21 minutes, with Kaprizov skating in 22:11.
Brodin led the back end, earning 23:36 of ice time while Dmitry Kulikov, who also had an assist in the game, had 22:41, his fourth-highest total of the season and most since he skated in 23-plus minutes over three consecutive games in early-to-mid January.
"Certainly we're going to have to play everybody. We shorted at the end and Spurgy was out for a long time with getting hit in the face. Everybody's gotta play. That's who we are," Evason said. "We'll hopefully rotate tomorrow. It's not going to get any easier. So we grinded [Thursday] out? Great. [Friday] we play again."
Brodin didn't sound too concerned, especially since the Wild will go home for a couple of games beginning Sunday against the Dallas Stars.
"I actually like back-to-back games, usually I play better in the second than in the first in back-to-backs," Brodin said. "I don't think that's any problem. We've played them many times before, so we're pretty used to it."
With Talbot getting the nod on Thursday, expect Kaapo Kahkonen to earn the start on Friday.
Over his past 13 games (12 starts), Kahkonen is 8-3-1 with a .922 save percentage. He's allowed two goals or fewer in three of those four losses.
The Sabres are coming off one of their most impressive wins on the season Wednesday night when they defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-1 at Scotiabank Arena.
Jeff Skinner and Dylan Cozens had multi-point efforts for the Sabres, who got 29 saves from veteran Craig Anderson in the victory.
The win snapped a six-game losing streak for Buffalo, which lost all six of those contests in regulation, none of them by fewer than two goals.
Buffalo won the lone meeting between the clubs this season, however, scoring a 3-2 shootout victory in St. Paul on Dec. 16. Cozens and Mark Pysyk scored for the Sabres, who never led in the game until it was over. Kaprizov and Jon Merrill had the goals for Minnesota, which got 38 saves from Talbot.
Anderson is expected to draw the start between the pipes for Buffalo. He's 7-7-0 in 14 games this season, with a .909 save percentage and a 2.87 goals-against average.
Tage Thompson leads the Sabres' offensive attack with 23 goals and 41 points. Rasmus Dahlin has a team-high 27 assists to go with eight goals.
Former Wild forward Alex Tuch has been outstanding since arriving as part of the Jack Eichel trade back in November. He's got seven goals and 16 assists for 23 points in 23 games and is a plus-3. He's one of just two men on the roster who are currently plus players.