Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson zeroes in again, shutting out the Sabres

When the Minnesota Wild are down, they have a knack for getting right back up.

They stymied the Buffalo Sabres 1-0 on Wednesday night at KeyBank Center to bounce back from the setback they suffered two nights earlier to the Jets and remain one of only two NHL teams (the Hurricanes are the other) to not drop consecutive games in regulation.

This win ended only the second two-game skid of the season for the Wild: They fell in a shootout to the Calgary Flames last Saturday before they were stumped 4-1 by the Winnipeg Jets on Monday despite tallying a season-high 44 shots.

The Wild weren’t as busy around the Buffalo net, but they didn’t need to be — not when goaltender Filip Gustavsson made a season-high 39 saves (including a whopping 16 in the first period) for his second shutout.

In front of Gustavsson, Kirill Kaprizov scored his team-leading 14th goal to help continue the Wild’s excellence on the road, where they became first in the league to record 10 victories as the visitor; this is also the fastest in franchise history the team has reached 10 road wins.

Overall, the Wild are 14-4-4 going into a weekend back-to-back at home that begins Friday afternoon against the Blackhawks before the Central Division rival Predators stop by Xcel Energy Center on Saturday.

Kaprizov capitalized only 6 minutes, 55 seconds into the first period off a rare 4-on-1 rush for the Wild, with the winger burying a give-and-go with Joel Eriksson Ek behind Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (28 saves).

The point was Kaprizov’s 35th after he didn’t factor into the loss to Winnipeg, just the fourth game he’s gone pointless this season; that was Kaprizov’s return from a knee-on-knee hit that sidelined him from that recent game at Calgary when the Wild rallied for a point in a 4-3 shootout loss.

In his past 12 road appearances, Kaprizov has racked up nine goals and 16 assists for 25 points.

Matt Boldy, who picked up the secondary assist on Kaprizov’s goal, has 10 points over his past 10 games. Brock Faber was the other player included in the Wild’s odd-man break, the defenseman hauling the puck out of the Wild’s zone before handing off to Boldy.

Even with Kaprizov back, the Wild’s depth was still being tested.

Jonas Brodin didn’t play on the blue line because of an upper-body injury, and Jakub Lauko is considered day-to-day after he left Monday’s action early with a lower-body injury. Marat Khusnutdinov (lower body) missed a third straight, and Mats Zuccarello remains out week to week after getting hit by a shot on Nov. 14 and having surgery.

Although they scored first, the Wild didn’t apply much pressure to extend their lead.

Instead, Buffalo peppered Gustavsson with pucks, including six shots on a pair of power plays. But the Wild penalty kill led by Gustavsson snuffed out both chances for the PK’s first clean performance since giving up three goals to the Flames and Jets.

(The Sabres, who were rested after not playing since Saturday when they swept a California road trip, weren’t whistled for a single penalty.)

A scoreless second period flattered the Wild, who finally started to generate more offensive-zone time in Buffalo territory, but the Sabres were urgent again in the third.

Tage Thompson, the Sabres star who was idle the previous five games due to injury, finished with seven shots and 12 total shot attempts, but Gustavsson was locked in for every puck Buffalo threw his way — including an uncontested try from Thompson from the slot in the final minute.

Gustavsson earned his eighth career shutout and has allowed two or fewer goals in a league-high 12 starts.

Also key to keeping the puck out of the Wild’s net was the team’s defense: The Wild blocked 31 shots. Jake Middleton had a game-high seven, while Marco Rossi and Declan Chisholm had four apiece.

____