BUFFALO, N.Y. _ Petr Mrazek looked like his old self, making save after save to help his Detroit Red Wings teammates.
His 34-save effort earned the Wings a point as they fell to the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 in overtime, extending their point streak to four games.
Frans Nielsen scored on a power play as the Wings converted on the road for the second time in two games after going from Oct. 19 to Jan. 12 without doing so. It is the third conversion overall in the last five games, an encouraging sign for a team that has been so bad it has the worst power play in the NHL.
Darren Helm scored in his first game since suffering a dislocated shoulder Nov. 15.
Tied at 1-all going into the third period, Mrazek kept it that way even when Ryan O'Reilly had a golden chance after Mike Green lost a puck battle in the corner. A power play saw good puck movement and a shot from Gustav Nyquist that went off the crossbar. Tomas Tatar's attempt went wide. Andreas Athanasiou was stopped by Anders Nilsson after a nifty behind-the-net pass from Thomas Vanek.
Helm made it 2-1 when he snuck in from behind and swiped the puck into the net with 6:22 to play in regulation. O'Reilly bulled his way out from behind the net to make it 2-2 with 4:09 to play. Mrazek stopped Sam Reinhart after the Sabres buzzed around Detroit's zone, and had 33 saves end of regulation.
The Wings had great offensive zone time to start overtime, and earned a power play with 3:19 left, and Anthony Mantha tried a shot from the low slot. Okposo scored with 26 seconds to go on a power play.
Considering the fresh memory of how farcical the start against Boston was, the Wings still spent the opening shift in their own end and took a penalty within the opening minute, forcing Mrazek to make saves on a snap shot from Reinhart and a tipped puck from O'Reilly.
The Wings pushed back, though, and had a great scoring chance bounce off the crossbar when Athanasiou tried to finish a drop pass from Nielsen. Instead Nielsen made it 1-0 during a power play, converting on a slap shot after a pass from Mike Green.
Mrazek had a strong period making 14 saves, and got help from teammates such as when Gustav Nyquist made a hard block on Zach Bogosian late in the period.
Mantha had a point-blank shot denied by Nilsson early in the second period, part of a good overall shift from Henrik Zetterberg's line. Then came a long penalty killing stretch, as a penalty on Xavier Ouellet overlapped one to Helm by 24 seconds. The Sabres converted during the 5-on-4 part, with Reinhart credited for a tip that looked like it went in off Danny DeKeyser. Originally waved off by officials, review showed Reinhart kicked the puck to his stick before it crossed the goal line.
Mrazek continued a stellar night with a save on a tip-in attempt by Jack Eichel around the 15-minute mark of the second period. That was one of 27 shots the Sabres had after just two periods.
