Ahead or behind and through four straight overtimes, not much has flustered the Buffalo Sabres in recent games.
They went toe to toe and chance for chance with the Washington Capitals Friday night in KeyBank Center, and about the only difference was the Capitals have a legend like Alex Ovechkin in their lineup and the Sabres don't. The Sabres came back from two deficits and even took the lead, but the Great Eight had the last say.
Ovechkin got his 41st goal of the season – and 771st of his career – to tie the game with 3:13 left in the second period and then beat Dustin Tokarski on a neat backhand in the third round of a shootout as the Capitals pulled out a 4-3 victory.
It was a back-and-forth affair that saw Jeff Skinner get goals 25 and 26 of the season for the Sabres and Victor Olofsson added No. 12 off a Casey Mittelstadt pass to give Buffalo a 3-2 lead at 12:55 of the second period. Ovechkin tied it with a laser to the top corner past Tokarski off a clean faceoff win by Evgeny Kuznetsov.
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After the teams combined for 12 shots on goal (seven by Washington) in the scoreless overtime, Capitals goalie Ilya Samsonov stopped Casey Mittelstadt and Alex Tuch in the shootout after Tage Thompson had given Buffalo a 1-0 lead. Kuznetsov very slowly came in on his attempt to beat Tokarski with a quick backhand and Ovechkin won it with the 16th game-deciding shootout goal of his career.
The Sabres (23-33-9) were denied their first four-game winning streak since November of 2018. They had won seven straight games when tied or leading through two periods.
Washington had a 40-23 advantage in shots on goal, getting 10 of the first 11 in the game before Skinner scored on a backhand at 15:49 of the first to make it 1-1.
"They're a tough team to get through the neutral zone," Skinner said. "They clog it up pretty well so there were stretches there where we didn't seem like we couldn't get into the zone and create O-zone time and we were on our heels for a little bit. But when that did happen, I think we did a decent job of kind of trying to reverse the tide."
"I think we battled the entire game. We just weren't sharp," said coach Don Granato. "We didn't have our 'A' game tonight. We battled that, but we battled it the right way. ... I didn't think our guys felt their game. But they figured out how to play when you're not feeling good. And against a really tough team. So we found a way to get a point. And we were in there, could have almost got two points."
Skinner's second goal came at 10:23 of the second period off a great pass by Mattias Samuelsson, who alertly found Skinner streaking down the right side as Washington defenseman John Carlson had to speed to the bench after losing his helmet. Skinner's shot went five-hole on Samsonov.
"It was 5-on-4 for a little bit for it there and so nice play by 'Sammy' recognizing I was open," Skinner said. "I was just trying to get in, take as much space as I could and fortunately it went in."
It was Skinner's eighth multigoal game of the season, tied for the NHL lead with Ovechkin and Chris Kreider of the New York Rangers.
"I just had the hot stick for the game and ended up playing a couple and the trend continues," Eakin said before Friday's game.
The Capitals improved to 8-2-1 in March, tied for the NHL lead in victories for the month. The Sabres are 7-3-1 this month through a rugged schedule that has included nine teams currently in playoff positions.
"It's a lot of fun. These are the games we want to play," center Cody Eakin said before the game. "We want to compare ourselves to these teams, set our goals and I think we've been doing a great job with that."
Here are more observations on the game:
1. Near misses
The Sabres had several quality scoring opportunities they misfired on, including two by Peyton Krebs in short order in the second period off Colin Miller feeds. The biggest one came with 14:45 left, when Samsonov stopped Olofsson and stoned Rasmus Asplund on a rebound but then was out of position. The puck squirted to Olofsson, who had an open net, but fired high and wide and looked to the rafters as soon as he shot the puck.
Ovechkin went sliding in front of Olofsson trying to block the shot and didn't get a piece of it, but provided just enough distraction.
"I want that one back for sure," Olofsson said. "You saw Ovi kind of sliding in and I thought I had to put it in a far side of the net and I just shot it wide. Definitely gotta score there."
"Who knows if Olofsson hits that wide-open net which I think he would hit 99 and 100 times from that spot?" Granato said. "So we were in it and the overtime I thought was was excellent job by our guys. It was a positive sign to see.Â
You can see Olofsson looking to the rafters after he missed this one just on the left of the shot. https://t.co/NF0GE8wHMl
— Mike Harrington (@ByMHarrington) March 26, 2022
2. In the crease
Tokarski made 37 saves in the Buffalo net and stopped Ovechkin on a backhand rebound at the overtime horn after the Caps broke in on a 2-on-1. Tokarski had stopped 53 of 54 shots in his previous two starts.
Skinner's first goal snapped a streak of 143 minutes, 15 seconds of regulation play without a Buffalo goal in support of Tokarski. The Sabres had not scored for him in regulation in his last two games, getting blanked by Los Angeles and posting a 1-0 overtime win in Calgary on a Tage Thompson goal.
3. Throwback on the mic
Rick Jeanneret was joined on the Sabres' simulcast by longtime partner Harry Neale, who worked on Buffalo broadcasts from 2007-2013.
Neale, who turned 85 on March 9, joked early in his appearance that he and Jeanneret were setting the NHL record for the oldest broadcast duo at 173 years. That would make Jeanneret 88 years old and Neale explained he just wanted to make his longtime friend older than he was. Jeanneret is 79.
4. Next
The Sabres will practice Saturday in LECOM Harborcenter and then head to New York to open a back-to-back against the Rangers in a 5 p.m. start on Sunday. The team plays Monday in Chicago and the next home game is Wednesday against Winnipeg.
