BUFFALO, New York (Ticker) -- The Minnesota Wild found a way to stifle the Buffalo Sabres' potent power play.
Wes Walz had a shorthanded goal and Alexandre Daigle and Andrew Brunette scored on the power play as the Minnesota Wild held on for a 3-1 victory over the Sabres, who had a three-game winning streak snapped.
Buffalo was held scoreless in its first two games of the season but bounced back to win six of the next eight, scoring a power-play goal in seven straight. The Sabres did not get many chances to extend that streak against the Wild, who had to kill just three penalties.
Minnesota had two shorthanded situations in the first period and took advantage of the second when Walz stole the puck from defenseman Andy Delmore at the blue line.
Walz broke in 2-on-1 with Pascal Dupuis and skated to the left faceoff circle before putting a wrist shot between the pads of goaltender Martin Biron, the reigning NHL Defensive Player of the Week.
"We talked about going five-hole. It's probably his weakness," Walz said. "I thought about that on my way up the ice. The first goal in the game is a big goal. The first run in baseball is a big run. The way the game is played today, it's not the easiest thing to score a goal, so it was a big goal, for sure."
"That's how the game goes," Biron said. "You stop the first (goal), the game's different."
Daigle added his team-leading fourth goal of the season midway the second period and Brunette notched his 300th career point in the third as Minnesota went 2-for-4 on the power play and won for just the third time in 10 games.
"The big goal was the first goal, when we scored 4-on-5," Daigle said. "Absolutely, when you score one of those goals, you're in good shape to win."
Defenseman Dimitri Kalinin scored 7:03 into the third as the Sabres avoided being shut out for the third time this season.
Buffalo center Chris Drury had his points streak snapped at seven games, tying a career best.
The Sabres lost for the second time in three home games Center this season after returning from a 4-2-0 road trip.
"In today's game, special teams are huge," Buffalo center Curtis Brown said. "If you can go out and get something on the power play and stop them on the penalty-kill ... obviously, they did that tonight. We didn't get the outcome we were hoping for."
Daigle provided the decisive goal at 7:07 of the second period as he got a pass from defenseman Willie Mitchell at the top of the right circle and fired a one-timer past Biron's stick side.
"Nice pass, right in between my legs," Daigle said. "(The Sabres) were running around on that power play. I think it caught them by surprise."
Brunette appeared to seal the win with his first goal of the season with 17:11 left in the game. He deflected Travis Roche's slap shot from the blue line past Biron for a 3-0 cushion.
Minnesota's Manny Fernandez stopped 32 shots, but his shutout bid was spoiled when Kalinin put in the rebound of a shot by Adam Mair with 16:57 to play.
The Wild held on after Fernandez denied Miroslav Satan and Brown on breakaways in the third period.
