Buffalo, N.Y. — Somehow, a little incredibly, the Red Wings earned a much-needed victory Monday, a 6-5 shootout victory against Buffalo, to turn around what was looking like a grim, ugly evening.

Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymmond scored in the shootout against former teammate James Reimer.

Goaltender Sebastian Cossa relieved Ville Husso to begin the second period and earned the victory, stopping 2-of-3 shooters in the shootout and making 12 saves in regulation on 14 shots, and helping the Wings complete the comeback.

Goals from Andrew Copp and Moritz Seider in the third period tied the game at 5-5.

Cossa became the first goaltender in NHL history to win his NHL debut via a shootout in a relief effort, according to Sportsnet Stats.

“That’s pretty cool,” Cossa said. “I don’t think I could have pictured it a better way. Really excited and probably it’s not going to set in for a while. I don’t know how much sleep I’ll get but really cool moment.”

Cossa relished the opportunity to earn the win in a shootout.

“I love shootouts,” Cossa said. “One on one, and you’re either the hero or the villain and I like being in that spot. I have a lot of confidence in myself and my game and it’s cool to do it at this level.”

The victory ended a five-game Wings’ (11-13-4) winless streak. But the way the evening was going, this didn’t look like a given.

BOX SCORE: Red Wings 6, Sabres 5 (SO)

“It was good, it was just this was unique,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “Coming back from two goals down in the third period, it was bound to go our way and I give our guys credit.

“The other night (2-1 loss to Colorado) was an extremely tough loss. Good for our guys to hang in there and the energy in practice was great, the mood has been great and they got rewarded tonight.

“We needed one to go our way. The ironic things is that was one of our more sloppy games since we came back from the West Coast. We’ve played some pretty good hockey but we were a little sloppy tonight, but we produced some offense.”

Buffalo (11-13-4) saw its losing streak reach seven games. The Wings, Ottawa and Buffalo all have 26 points, one more than Montreal (25), which is in the Eastern Conference basement.

Copp scored his second goal of the game, and sixth of the season, at 10:27, cutting the Buffalo lead to 5-4. Seider then tied it at 15:42 with a drive from the point past the beleaguered Reimer.

The Wings killed a Buffalo power play, after a Seider tripping penalty, at 17:41 of the third period to preserve at least one point in the standings.

“We really needed it,” said Seider of the victory. “A lot of highs and lows in the game. We were always in the battle and came up with a great win. A great kill there in the end. Coming out of it with two points, we can gain some confidence.”

Husso started his fourth consecutive game but whether it was the workload, or the Sabres’ shooters, Husso wasn’t sharp. Husso allowed four goals on seven shots before being replaced by Cossa to begin the second period.

“He was sharp, good,” said Lalonde of Cossa, who Lalonde decided would go in after Husso allowed the third goal. “It’s a tough task for him. This is a very high-end, skilled team and we’ve had trouble keeping it out of our net in this building.

“They dictate the matchup and that (Tage) Thompson line has given us fits. There were some real good looks (from Buffalo) and it was good on him (Cossa) to hang in there and he was excellent in the shootout.”

Alex DeBrincat and Copp scored goals 41 seconds apart in first period, giving the Wings a 2-1 lead. Raymond scored his 11th goal, and ninth in 10 games, briefly tying the game 3-3 early in the second period.

Jason Zucker had two goals, and Zach Benson, Tage Thompson, Nicolas Aube-Kubel had the Sabres’ goals. Reimer stopped 26-of-31 shots.

Husso had a rough first period, but the goaltender didn’t have the best luck.

Benson opened the scoring at 1:38 of the first period, lifting a long-range shot that appeared to roll up the stick of Ben Chiarot and flew past Husso for Benson’s fourth goal.

After the goals from DeBrincat and Copp (Copp’s sixth goal ended a personal 15-game drought) gave the Wings a 2-1 lead, Thompson tied it for Buffalo with his 15th goal, converting a drop pass from Zucker, while skating free down the slot.

Buffalo took the lead, 3-2, as Zucker snuck a low drive along the ice through Husso, who was screened by 6-foot-6 Jordan Greenway.

That was enough, though, for Lalonde who replaced Husso with Cossa. Cossa let a rebound squirt to Aube-Kubel at the side of the net, giving the Sabres a 4-3 lead just 1:21 after Raymond had tied the game off a rush.

Zucker made it 5-3, driving to the net and slipping a backhander past Cossa.

But Cossa kept the score there, and the Wings worked their way for an important victory.

“It was a massive win for us,” captain Larkin said. “Great for Coss, great (for different Wings lines), it’s good for our hockey team to score some goals to be down and come back and win that way.

“It’s been really tough, but guys want to produce more and help the team and you saw it tonight. Great team win and that’s something we needed in the worst way. We were desperate and we didn’t give up.”

tkulfan@detroitnews.com

@tkulfan

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