The Minnesota Wild will try for their eighth straight victory when they host the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night.
The Wild are also 11-1-1 in their past 13 games, most recently beating the team with the best record in the NHL that was riding a 10-game winning streak.
Minnesota took down the visiting Colorado Avalanche 3-2 in a shootout on Friday, marking just the eighth time in NHL history that two teams met with winning streaks of at least six games, and the second time that happened with the Wild.
They were on a 12-game winning streak when the Columbus Blue Jackets beat them 4-2 on Dec. 31, 2016 to run their winning streak to 15 games.
“They’re the best team in the league right now,” Minnesota defenseman Jonas Brodin said of Colorado. “They [have] great players, but we’re a good team, too, and I think we showed that.”
The Wild will be up against a Buffalo team that’s also playing its second game in two days. The Sabres were shut out 5-0 by the visiting New Jersey Devils on Friday and now head on the road, where they’re 1-6-2 this season without a regulation victory.
The Wild would appear in good position to maintain their winning streak.
“I hope we keep doing it,” Wild goalie Jesper Wallstedt said after making 39 saves against the Avalanche and stopping two of three attempts in the shootout.
Buffalo forward Tage Thompson said the Sabres played better against the Devils than the score indicated.
“I thought there was a lot of energy on the bench, and I thought our team was playing well,” Thompson said. “I thought we controlled the first two periods pretty handily. Obviously, the score didn’t indicate that, but I thought we had a lot of chances, a lot of opportunities.”
The Wild placed Marcus Foligno on injured reserve on Friday with a lower-body injury and activated fellow forward Ryan Hartman, who had missed four games with a lower-body injury.
Foligno is week-to-week after leaving during the second period of a 4-3 overtime win at the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday. He has two assists in 23 games this season, while Hartman has four goals and four assists in 21 games.
Hartman assisted on the first of two goals by Kirill Kaprizov in his return to action on Friday.
Filip Gustavsson will start in goal for the Wild. Gustavsson is 2-1-1 in his career against the Sabres with a .938 save percentage and 1.75 goals against average
Pekka Luukkonen will start in goal for the Sabres after Alex Lyon made 18 saves against the Devils on Friday.
Luukkonen is 3-2-1 in his career against the Wild with a .922 save percentage and 2.44 goals-against average.
Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson went to the locker room after taking an elbow to the face from Timo Meier in the third period. Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff did not have an update on Samuelsson immediately following the game.
Samuelsson is second on the team in ice time at 21:47 minutes a game.
