With Buffalo pressing in the third, Gustavsson was square to get in front of a Jiri Kulich one-timer from the inside of the left circle that hit his chest with 3:29 left and quickly covered the rebound in front. When Luukkonen pulled for the extra attacker, Gustavsson stopped Thompson from the top of the slot with 50 seconds left.

“I think we had five or six chances (in the) last minute where he was posting from post to post with his legs making extended saves, and we were just jamming,” Thompson said. “So they did well tonight. We knew coming in that they’re a team that doesn’t give up much, and I thought we got a lot of Grade-A looks. We just have to convert that into goals.”

The Sabers came up four straight on the road and went 3-1-0.

“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 during the road trip. We talked about that after the second period: we are going to pay attention to our appearance, we have to take advantage of this. It could be a screen goal, a tip goal or an ugly goal. Kind of like the Anaheim goal that got us going (in a 3-2 overtime win Friday), where it slid behind the goaltender. I think that’s the part that impressed me the most. We’ve been able to play a pretty consistent style.”

NOTES: Minnesota is 6-0-2 in its past eight road games and tied the Vancouver Canucks (8-0-0 from Oct. 17 to Nov. 26) for the longest point streak by any team this season. … Kaprizov has a 12-game road point streak (nine goals, 16 assists). … Wild defender Jonas Brodin was late due to 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.