Minnesota Wild at Buffalo Sabres 3/4/22 - NHL Picks & Predictions

The Minnesota Wild look to snap a four-game losing streak when visiting the Buffalo Sabres on Friday. Minnesota is third in the Central Division at 31-17-3 with 65 points. Minnesota is five points behind second-place St. Louis and 19 points behind first-place Colorado. Minnesota was defeated by the Calgary Flames 5-1 on Tuesday for their second consecutive loss to Calgary in the last three days.

Kirill Kaprizov is leading Minnesota in goals scored with 24, assists with 40 and points with 64. In goal, Cam Talbot is 19-12-1 with eight goals against average of 2.98, save percentage of .908 and one shutout. Minnesota is scoring an average of 3.67 goals per game and allowing an average of 3.12 goals per game. Minnesota's power play scores 19.5% of the time and its penalty-kill unit is successful 77.9% of the time.

Buffalo looks for its second consecutive victory when hosting Minnesota on Friday. The Sabres are seventh in the Atlantic division at 17-30-8 with 42 points but well out of playoff contention. Buffalo upset the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday 5-1, snapping the Sabres six-game losing skid. Craig Anderson stopped 29 of 30 shots he faced in goal for Buffalo.

Tage Thompson is the leading goal scorer for Buffalo with 23 and the leader in points with 41 while Rasmus Dahlin is the leader in assists with 27. In goal, Craig Anderson is 7-7-0 with a goals-against average of 2.87 and save percentage of .909. Buffalo is scoring an average of 2.65 goals per game and allowing an average of 3.55 goals per game. Buffalo's power play scores 19.6% of the time and its penalty-kill unit is successful 76.7% of the time.