DETROIT — Different type of game, but same frustrating result for the Red Wings.
After losing badly to Buffalo on Halloween night, the Wings staged a fine rally Wednesday, forcing overtime, but ultimately lost, 5-4 in the shootout.
Buffalo's Jack Quinn was the lone goal scorer in the shootout, clinching the Sabres' win.
David Perron and two Oskar Sundqvist goals in the third period tied the game 4-4 after the Wings looked headed for another disappointing loss and trailing 4-1.
The Wings had a 1 minute, 27 second two-man advantage in the final two minutes of regulation time, but the Wings failed to convert, capping an 0-for-7 night on the power play and forcing overtime.
Jonatan Berggren opened the scoring just 1 minute, 20 seconds into the game, but Buffalo answered with four unanswered goals before Perron scored his seventh goal, midway in the third period.
Sundqvist then scored two goals 1:50 apart, his second and third goals of the season. On the second, the game-tying goal, Andrew Copp won the faceoff and Sundqvist gathered the puck, whistling a shot from the hashmarks past goaltender Craig Anderson, tying the game 4-4.
Goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic got his first start since Nov. 12 (he did relieve Ville Husso Monday), struggled to open the game but rebounded to keep the Wings close.
Dylan Cozens scored twice for Buffalo (one short-handed), and Mattias Samuelsson and Jeff Skinner (power play) added the Sabres' goals.
Buffalo dominated the special teams with power play and short-handed goals, while the Wings were 0 for 6 on the power play.
Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde talked after Wednesday's morning skate about the need to eliminate the "easy offense" the Sabres got the last time the teams played, an 8-3 Buffalo victory.
"Whoever we play, giving up easy offense, especially a skilled team and it was a challenge for us last time out, the first time we had played a team that deep with skill, we were on the road, and it just kept coming," Lalonde said. "But as a team, watching it back, we gave easy offense for skilled guys that killed us."
Berggren gave the Wings a brief lead with his second goal, just 80 seconds into the game.
Filip Hronek found Berggren with a short pass, with Berggren skating to near the hashmarks. Berggren snapped a shot that got through a screened Anderson, giving the Wings a quick lead.
But the Sabres would just a quickly change the complexion of the game.
Cozens opened the Buffalo scoring with a short-handed goal, chipping it past Berggren and outskating Lucas Raymond to the puck, then beating Nedeljkovic on a partial breakaway at 4:53, tying the game 1-1.
Buffalo took the lead when Samuelsson, who played for the Plymouth Township-based United States National Development Team Program, scored his first NHL goal on a shot from the rush at 8:25, the puck bouncing off Nedeljkovic and into the net.
The Wings wanted to play a better defensive game in front of Nedeljkovic, who was been in net for several of the Wings' poorer defensive efforts.
"Ned is a big part of our team, as a human he's so well liked in the room," Lalonde said. "In reality, we haven't performed well in front of him. Of course they want to pick him up."
The Sabres stretched the lead to 4-1 the first half of the second period.
Cozens got his second goal, and eighth of the season, converting a good pass from J.J. Peterka with a shot from the high slot at 8:12.
Skinner extended the lead to 4-1 at 11:13, jamming the puck on a wraparound.
On Skinner's goal, Moritz Seider went down in severe pain after blocking a shot by Buffalo's Tage Thompson on the left leg. While Seider was writhing in pain, the Sabres worked the puck to Skinner, who scored his 11th goal.
Seider returned before the end of the second period.
The Wings had late second power plays but were frustrated by Anderson, who made a dazzling sliding glove save on Dominik Kubalik on the the second of the Wings' man advantages.
