• Recap
• Bleachers

First-period surge leads Wild past Sabres

Oct 2, 2008 - 2:53 AM By Anthony Maggio PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (Ticker) -- Antti Miettinen, Owen Nolan and defenseman Brent Burns scored first-period goals to lead the Minnesota Wild past the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2, in Wednesday's preseason game.

Miettinen's even-strength goal 5:23 into the first got the Wild on the scoreboard, while Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Eric Belanger set up Nolan's power-play tally 7:11 later. Burns scored a shorthanded goal less than two minutes afterward to help Minnesota improve to 4-1-0 in preseason action.

Goaltender Josh Harding evened his preseason record at 1-1-0 but left the game at 7:38 of the third period after teammate Martin Skoula hit him in the face with his stick while fighting for a puck in front of the net. Harding exited the game after stopping 25 of 26 shots.

Buffalo's Daniel Paille scored 5:36 into the second and defenseman Andrej Sekera notched a power-play goal against Niklas Backstrom with one second left in the game.

The Wild's scoring balance was a welcome sign for a club trying to replace Pavol Demitra, Brian Rolston and Mark Parrish, who were three of their top five goal-scorers in 2007-08.

Burns and Bouchard both returned from injuries to play for the first time this preseason.

Ryan Miller, who started a career-high 75 games for the Sabres last season, turned away 21 shots.