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Pominville scores winner in Buffalo return
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Jason Pominville received a warm welcome in his return to Buffalo and left his former team still searching for its first win of the season.
Pominville, a former Sabres captain, scored the winning goal in the Minnesota Wild’s 2-1 victory over the winless Sabres on Monday night.
“It tops off a pretty emotional day in a great way,” said Pominville, who played his first game in Buffalo since he was traded to Minnesota last April for center Johan Larsson, Rochester goalie Matt Hackett, a first-round pick that was used on defenseman Nikita Zadorov and a second-round selection. “So many good memories in this building. It’s nice to get another one.”
Pominville scored on the power play with 9.7 seconds left in the second period to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead. Mikko Koivu and Jared Spurgeon assisted on the goal.
Kyle Brodziak also scored for Minnesota (3-1-2). Josh Harding made 22 saves.
Buffalo (0-6-1) tied a franchise record for its longest winless streak to start a season. The Sabres were 0-5-2 in 1999 and 0-4-3 in 1990.
The Sabres came into the game allowing an average of 37 shots on goal, but held Minnesota to just 16. Buffalo failed to take advantage, however, and went 0-4 on the power play.
“There were many moments in the game where I don’t feel that our execution was at its best, but the bottom line is we did enough good things to win this hockey game,” Minnesota coach Mike Yeo said. “I thought special teams was critical.”
Brian Flynn lifted Buffalo into a 1-1 tie with 4:56 to go in the second period, scoring his first of the season off a pass from Zemgus Girgensons.
The Sabres are a young team that is having trouble scoring. They have just seven goals through seven games, another franchise record for futility.
“You’re not going to win many games scoring one goal,” Sabres coach Ron Rolston said. “We need our top six to step up.”
Pominville empathized with his former teammates.
“It’s tough for the group of guys that have been here a while,” he said. “The team is going through a little bit of a rebuild, trusting a lot of younger players. It’s going to be a process for them.”
In other games, Detroit defeated Boston 3-2 and Washington stopped Edmonton 4-2.
In Boston, Stephen Weiss and Daniel Cleary scored second-period goals as the Detroit Red Wings edged the Boston Bruins. Henrik Zetterberg had the other goal for Detroit (4-2), while reserve goalie Jonas Gustavsson made 28 saves in his first game of the season.
Loui Eriksson and Milan Lucic scored for Boston.
In Washington, Joel Ward, Alex Ovechkin and Troy Brouwer scored goals in less than four minutes of the second period as the Capitals ended a three-game losing streak.
Ovechkin’s goal was his sixth of the young season.
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