At The Final Horn | Sabres fall to Capitals, Ovechkin climbs record book

The Buffalo Sabres watched Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin make history Monday night in Washington's 5-3 victory as Ovechkin scored to tie Brett Hull for the fourth-most goals in NHL history.
Ovechkin now has 741 goals in his career and is 154 away from breaking Wayne Gretzky's all-time mark of 894.
Cody Eakin, Anders Bjork and Colin Miller scored for Buffalo at Capital One Arena while Dustin Tokarski stopped 25 of 30 shots.

Also scoring for Washington was Tom Wilson with two goals, as well as Connor McMichael and Conor Sheary. Vitek Vanecek made 25 saves.
Buffalo's power-play finished 0-for-3 and the penalty kill was 2-for-3 on the night.

How it happened

The Capitals struck early in each of the first two periods. They got on the board right away when Wilson was credited with Washington's first goal 2:13 in. A shot by Trevor van Riemsdyk went off Ovechkin's stick and then off Wilson's elbow to beat Tokarski.
Then at the 2:30 mark of the second period, McMichael's shot from the slot went in off Sabres defenseman Christian Wolanin as he battled in front and in the net.
Eakin picked up a loose puck inside the Washington blue line at the 3:43 mark of the second and wristed in a shot to get Buffalo within one.
Ovechkin's goal came 8:55 into the second when he stood in the high slot and deflected in a Dmitri Orlov shot to make it 3-1.
Buffalo started the third period off on the right foot. Bjork put one in 3:17 into the period after a wild scramble in front. Buffalo had at least five chances before Bjork, at the top of the paint, knocked the puck out of the air and past Vanecek.
Tom Wilson found himself all alone in front and put a feed from Evgeny Kuznetsov five hole to allow Washington to regain its two-goal lead at the 6:45 mark.
Sheary deflected in a point shot from John Carlson with 2:13 left to make it 5-2.
Miller's point shot with 1:04 left came off a faceoff in the Capitals zone to close out the scoring.

Roll the highlight film

Here's Bjork's goal:

Worthy of a mention

• Wolanin made his debut for the Sabres and skated 8:18. The defenseman was claimed off waivers on October 16. He became the first player in franchise history to wear No. 86 in a game.

Coming up

The Sabres will be back home Friday and Saturday for a pair of games at KeyBank Center.
They'll take on Edmonton on Friday in a game that can only be streamed on ESPN+ or Hulu. Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray will have the call on WGR 550.
Then Buffalo will host Toronto on Saturday for the first time since February 16, 2020.
Tickets for both games are on sale now.
Stick with Sabres.com and the team's official social media channels for news and updates throughout the week.