Gustavsson saves 39, Wild saves Sabres

As Buffalo pressed in the third, Gustavsson was ready to block a one-timer from Jiri Kulich from the inside of the left circle that hit him in the chest with 3:29 left and was quickly able to cover the rebound in front. Then, with Luukkonen using the extra attacker, Gustavsson stopped Thompson from the top of the slot with 50 seconds left.

“I think we had five or six chances there (in the) last minute where he was post-to-post with his legs out making a save and we were just jamming,” Thompson said. “So you did a good job tonight. We knew they were a team that didn’t give up a lot and I thought we got a lot of quality looks. We just have to convert them into goals.”

The Sabers won four straight games and took a 3-1-0 lead.

“I think we’re growing as a team,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. “I think we understand that you really don’t have to change the way you play. You just have to stick with it. We did it on the road trip. We talked about that after the second half – we’ll see how we look, we have to take advantage of it. It could be a screen goal, a tip goal, an ugly goal. A bit like the Anaheim goal that got us going (in a 3-2 overtime win on Friday), where it fell behind the goalie. I think that’s the part that impresses me the most. We were able to play a pretty consistent style.”

NOTES: Minnesota has a 6-0-2 record in its last eight road games, tied with the Vancouver Canucks (8-0-0 from Oct. 17 to Nov. 26) for the longest road point streak by a team this season. … Kaprizov has a 12-game road point streak (nine goals, 16 assists). … Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin was sidelined late with an upper-body injury. There was no update. … Thompson played 19:43 and had six shots on goal after missing five games with a lower-body injury.