Washington captain now 5 from passing Gretzky for NHL record; Buffalo gets 8 goals in win
Sabres at Capitals | Recap
By Harvey Valentine
NHL.com Independent Correspondent
WASHINGTON -- Alex Ovechkin scored his 890th NHL goal to move within five of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record in the Washington Capitals' 8-5 loss to the Buffalo Sabres at Capital One Arena on Sunday.
Ovechkin pulled the Capitals within 6-4 at 9:11 of the third period when he got position at the top of the crease and deflected Rasmus Sandin’s shot from the left point down between goalie James Reimer’s pads. Ovechkin, who also had two assists, has 37 goals in 57 games this season.
“He’s chasing something special,” Capitals forward Aliaksei Protas said. “He helped us get close in that game, but again, a couple mistakes cost us.”
BUF@WSH: Ovechkin gets a piece of Sandin's blast for No. 890
Alex Tuch had two goals and an assist, Jack Quinn had a goal and two assists, and Tage Thompson scored twice for the Sabres (31-36-6), who are 4-1-0 in their past five games but still sit in last place in the Eastern Conference, nine points behind the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the conference. The Rangers have played one more game.
Reimer made 24 saves.
“I think we’ve made it a point that these last 20 games we were going to make something out of it,” Thompson said. “Try to build some momentum going into next year and try to hammer home an identity that we want to play by.”
Jakob Chychrun scored twice for the Capitals (47-17-9), who have lost three straight (0-2-1) but lead the Metropolitan Division by nine points over the Carolina Hurricanes. Logan Thompson made 15 saves.
“We lost three in a row, and right now it’s a good thing it’s happening right now and not in the playoffs,” Ovechkin said. “But we just have to bounce back and we just have to find our way to win the games.”
After Ovechkin made it a two-goal game, Pierre-Luc Dubois pulled the Capitals within 6-5 at 14:03 when he deflected Ovechkin’s point shot past Reimer on a power play, but Tuch deflected Mattias Samuelsson’s shot past Thompson to make it 7-5 at 15:34.
“We kept playing. We kept trying to create pressure,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “Both teams made some fundamental mistakes. You look at coverage plays and a couple of tipped goals. Tipped goals by them. Tipped goals by us. But I thought every time they tried to get a little momentum, we were able to take that away.”
BUF@WSH: Tuch gets a stick on Samuelsson's blast and knocks it into the net
Peyton Krebs scored an empty-net goal at 19:36 for the 8-5 final.
Chychrun put the Capitals ahead 1-0 at 10:06 of the first period. Reimer made a pad save on Ovechkin’s slap shot from the point, but Chychrun was there to finish on the rebound.
Thompson tied it 1-1 at 12:49, scoring from the left post off the rebound of JJ Peterka’s shot from the right circle on a power play.
“Some things we do early, especially with the puck against this team, that we had talked about and failed to execute,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “So, it puts you in spot where, ‘Uh-oh. We’ve got to get this thing corrected quickly.’ … We get out of the first period [tied], which I thought was a positive, and then it comes off the rails in the second.”
Ryan McLeod gave the Sabres a 2-1 lead at 2:14 of the second period when he worked a give-and-go with Quinn and poked the puck past Thompson.
Chychrun tied it 2-2 just 32 seconds later, scoring on a wrist shot from the left face-off dot at 2:46.
Tuch put the Sabres ahead 3-2 at 5:17, deflecting Connor Clifton’s shot past Thompson.
Sam Lafferty made it 4-2 at 11:52 when he cut across the slot on the rush and lifted a backhand over Thompson’s glove.
“We talked about our second period, that we need to play a good road second period,” Ruff said. “And I thought we got maybe one of our best road second periods, where we managed the puck better, put the puck in a place where we could get it back and create some pressure, and the discipline to not take a lot of penalties.”
BUF@WSH: Protas nets SHG on the breakaway for 30th of the season
Protas pulled the Capitals within 4-3, scoring short-handed on a breakaway 37 seconds into the third period.
Thompson responded to make it 5-3 at 1:28 with a snap shot from the left circle on the power play.
Quinn increased the lead to 6-3 at 5:52 when he stole the puck from Chychrun and scored on a breakaway.
NOTES: Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin played 22:18 and was plus-1 in his 500th NHL game. … Protas reached the 30-goal mark for the first time in his NHL career; the 24-year-old's previous best was six in 78 games last season. … Washington matched its longest losing streak of the season (0-3-0 from Feb. 25-March 1).
