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Ice Lab

Sat, Nov 29, 2025·Grand Casino Arena, St. Paul

Buffalo Sabres 3, Minnesota Wild 2 (SO)

Expected result

Based on shot quality alone, Buffalo Sabres win this game 61% of the time.

MIN winsBUF wins

By period

Goals and shots on goal in each period.

TeamP1P2P3OTSOTotal
BUF11101218023333
MIN2110803022224

Goals, with shots on goal in grey.

Scoring

Every goal, with the change it made to the home team's win probability.

  1. P1 9:37MINKirill KaprizovAssists: Mats Zuccarello, Danila Yurov · Snap, 0.07 xG0–1
  2. P1 12:42BUFBeck MalenstynAssists: Peyton Krebs, Josh Dunne · Deflected, 0.13 xG1–1
  3. P1 14:05MINMatt BoldyUnassisted · Wrist, 0.11 xG1–2
  4. P3 6:01BUFJosh DoanAssists: Alex Tuch, Noah Ostlund · Wrist, 0.04 xG2–2

Shootout

  1. 1. MIN Mats Zuccarello stopped
  2. 2. BUF Tage Thompson scored
  3. 3. MIN Matt Boldy scored
  4. 4. BUF Jack Quinn scored
  5. 5. MIN Kirill Kaprizov scored
  6. 6. BUF Alex Tuch stopped
  7. 7. MIN Vladimir Tarasenko stopped
  8. 8. BUF Noah Ostlund scored
Penalties (6)
  1. P1 3:35MINJared Spurgeon: Tripping2 min
  2. P2 2:14BUFAlex Tuch: Tripping2 min
  3. P2 10:32MINZeev Buium: Tripping2 min
  4. P2 13:16BUFMattias Samuelsson: Holding2 min
  5. P2 13:47MINMatt Boldy: Delaying game puck over glass2 min
  6. P3 10:00BUFRasmus Dahlin: Tripping2 min

Replay

Watch the game unfold on the ice: every shot, hit, turnover and faceoff appears as it happened, then fades. Drag the timeline to jump; goals are marked on it.

BUF00 SOG · 0.0 xG

20:00

P1

0.0 xG · 0 SOG0MIN
47% to win53% to win
← BUF attackMIN attack →
  1. P1 20:00Eriksson Ek won the faceoff against Kozak
  • Goal
  • Shot
  • Miss
  • Block
  • Hit
  • Takeaway
  • Giveaway
  • Faceoff
  • Penalty

The numbers

Team totals, side by side.

BUFMIN
33Shots on goal24
3.0Expected goals2.4
59Shot attempts46
26Faceoffs won32
3Power plays3
6Penalty minutes6
20Hits18
8Blocked shots14
18Giveaways15
6Takeaways6

Line combinations that worked

Model-based

Each team's forward lines and defence pairs at 5-on-5 (two minutes or more together), best first by expected goals for minus against.

Buffalo Sabres

Forward lines

  1. bestTuch – Doan – Ostlund8:03

    xG 0.80–0.31 (72%)attempts 14–5goals 0–1

  2. Malenstyn – Krebs – Dunne8:24

    xG 0.28–0.18 (61%)attempts 11–5goals 1–0

  3. Thompson – Kozak – Benson10:13

    xG 0.20–0.17 (55%)attempts 7–4goals 0–0

  4. Zucker – McLeod – Quinn11:10

    xG 0.05–0.30 (15%)attempts 3–11goals 0–0

Defence pairs

  1. bestBryson – Power6:40

    xG 0.50–0.18 (73%)attempts 9–4goals 0–0

  2. Timmins – Byram10:58

    xG 0.44–0.31 (59%)attempts 9–7goals 1–0

  3. Byram – Power2:02

    xG 0.10–0.00 (100%)attempts 3–0goals 0–0

Minnesota Wild

Forward lines

  1. bestJohansson – Eriksson Ek – Boldy11:48

    xG 0.61–0.41 (60%)attempts 8–10goals 1–0

  2. Zuccarello – Kaprizov – Yurov10:59

    xG 0.31–0.26 (54%)attempts 11–9goals 1–2

  3. Tarasenko – Hartman – Ohgren4:35

    xG 0.10–0.06 (61%)attempts 2–4goals 0–0

  4. Pitlick – Trenin – Sturm2:35

    xG 0.09–0.09 (49%)attempts 1–2goals 0–0

Defence pairs

  1. bestSpurgeon – Middleton14:54

    xG 0.61–0.39 (61%)attempts 12–14goals 1–1

  2. Bogosian – Buium12:10

    xG 0.30–0.64 (32%)attempts 11–14goals 0–0

  3. Brodin – Faber17:31

    xG 0.23–0.69 (25%)attempts 6–15goals 1–1

How the game flowed

Model-based

Chance quality for each side, minute by minute, with pressure underneath.

Expected goals flow

Running total of expected goals for each team. Steep climbs are spells of pressure; dots are goals. Shaded bands mark power plays (team colour), 4-on-4 or 3-on-3 (grey) and empty nets.

MIN 2.4 xGBUF 3.0 xG
0123P1P2P3OTEndxG

Tempo: attempts, hits and takeaways per minute

MINBUF

Win probability

Model-based

How each goal and each minute changed the likely winner.

Win probability

MIN's chance of winning through the game. Above the middle line MIN is favoured, below it BUF. Dots are goals.

Excitement 59/100 · #591 of 1312 this seasonSwing 1.79 · 4 goals in reachComeback index 18% (winner's lowest chance)
BUF 100%5050%50MIN 100%P1P2P3OTEndBiggest swing +34 pts

Did the better team win?

Every shot replayed 10,000 times, scoring with its expected-goal probability.

Based on shot quality alone, Buffalo Sabres win this game 61% of the time.

MIN winsBUF wins

Simulated goal difference (MIN − BUF), 10,000 replays

-7
-6
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
+1
+2
+3
+4
+5
+6
+7

The outlined bar is the actual result (excluding the shootout).