Defensive Lapses Sink Wild vs. Sabres

It was all going well at the Xcel Energy Center on Thursday night. Too well. The Minnesota Wild (4-0-1) were enjoying a 3-1 lead versus the upstart Buffalo Sabres (6-0-1), one of the better skating teams in the NHL. The team had held Thomas Vanek and Co. to three shots in the period. But in a span of 46 seconds with under five minutes to play in regulation, Buffalo tied the score and sent the game to overtime, where Sabre Derek Roy crashed the net 44 seconds in and sent Buffalo home with two points and the Wild home with a sick feeling in players' stomachs.

Young Wild defenseman Brent Burns, who scored on a trick shot early in the third period, took his share of responsibility, getting caught twice as he left his man to chase a loose puck that ended up costing the team two goals.

As far as the trick goal, Buffalo netminder Ryan Miller came out from the net to attempt a pass to a teammate when Burns got his stick on Miller's that deflected the puck into the net.

"It's the most embarrassing thing I've ever done in my life," Miller told a Star Tribune reporter.

At the time, it appeared the faux pas by Miller might surely cost his team a victory. But the Wild's inattention in the final quarter of the third period all but made up for it.

Said coach Jacques Lemaire in the postgame interview: "We had a bad two-and-a-half, three minutes. I thought we had our best game the way we played. We were on them, we didn't give them a lot. ... But we had three minutes that we did not get quite involved, just sitting there and watching them."

In addition to Burns, Benoit Pouliot and Stephane Veilleux scored goals for Minnesota. Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom stopped 20 of 24 shots for his first loss of the season.

Lemaire simply summed it up. "[Buffalo is] a team that when you let them play they will hurt you, and they did."

On tap: The Wild host the Columbus Blue Jackets (3-3-0) on Saturday at 7 p.m. The Blue Jackets are in fourth place in the Central Division.