Sabres score 3 quick goals in 3rd, pull away from Capitals

BUFFALO -- JJ Peterka had two goals and an assist for the Buffalo Sabres in a 6-2 win against the Washington Capitals at KeyBank Center on Tuesday.

Peterka has scored seven goals in his past six games and leads Buffalo with 28 this season.

“Obviously, it would be probably pretty cool (to reach 30 goals), but right now just playing, just trying to win games here right now and trying to help the team as good as I can,” he said. “Sometimes you have those games where a lot goes in, and sometimes they don’t, so I think just sticking with it and trying to help the team as good as I can.”

Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch and Rasmus Dahlin each had a goal and two assists for the Sabres (36-35-5). Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 23 saves.

Martin Fehervary and Dylan Strome scored for the Capitals (36-28-10), who have lost three straight (0-2-1). Charlie Lindgren allowed six goals on 31 shots before being replaced by Darcy Kuemper (four saves) in the third period.

Washington remained tied with the Detroit Red Wings, who have played one more game, for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. It is also one point behind the Philadelphia Flyers for third in the Metropolitan Division with two games in hand.

“We just gave up too many chances against and chasing the game the whole night,” Strome said. “... Obviously, disappointing tonight. Would like to get some ground (in the playoff race), but it is what it is. One game, just move on, but not a good game, obviously, from us.”

Fehervary gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead at 2:46 of the first period with a slap shot from above the left circle that beat Luukkonen five-hole.

Zemgus Girgensons tied it 1-1 at 15:42 when he redirected Dahlin’s shot glove side on Lindgren.

Peterka put Buffalo ahead 2-1 at 16:50 on a power play. Zach Benson’s short centering pass hit Tuch’s stick and deflected to Peterka, who scored into an open net past a sprawling Lindgren from along the goal line.

Peterka then made it 3-1 at 10:54 of the second period. He scored all alone in front after Tuch forced a turnover by Nicolas Aube-Kubel above the right circle.

“That guy’s stick is insane,” Peterka said of Tuch. “It’s like when you have the car and it goes back and forth. He’s winning so many pucks on the forecheck, which makes it so easy to play with him. I was pretty glad that came to me.”

Strome cut it to 3-2 at 19:14, burying a rebound in the crease with his backhand for a power-play goal.

“Overall, we didn't play really good, so we were lucky we were in that kind of spot in the third period,” Fehervary said. “But then it just turned on us. I mean, we just need to be better overall, like more sharper in the [defensive] zone, and we just need to have more checking.”

Dahlin pushed it to 4-2 at 3:03 of the third period with a one-timer from the left point on a power play.

The Sabres finished 2-for-2 on the power play after going 0-for-18 with the man-advantage in their previous seven games.

“We’ve had a lot of talks and it finally trickled in,” Dahlin said. “We’ve been having a lot of chances the last, whatever, five games on the power play, but we haven’t scored. That can create frustration, but we just stayed with it and scored two really good goals today, and we just got to continue to build.”

Thompson made it 5-2 at 4:48 off a centering pass from Jack Quinn to the left of the net.

Tuch buried a shot from the same spot, this time off a pass from Thompson, at 5:33 to extend the lead to 6-2.

“I thought we were fine offensively, we just couldn't handle their speed and skill,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. “And against a team as good as they are in that department, if we can't defend that and do a better job, it's going to be really, really difficult for us. But yeah, they're a handful for us, for sure.”

NOTES: Sabres forward Jeff Skinner played in his 1,000th NHL game. He’s the first player from the 2010 NHL Draft, and the 11th-youngest player (31 years, 322 days) in NHL history to reach the milestone. ... Benson had two assists. ... Thompson has seven points (five goals, two assists) in his past three games.