Caps Slide Past Sabres in Shootout

Facing a fair amount of adversity in Friday night's home opener against the Buffalo Sabres, the Caps overcame it all to scrape out a 4-3 shootout victory over the visitors. John Carlson scored the only goal of the shootout in the fourth round to give Washington its third victory in as many games against Buffalo this season.

Playing without four key regulars because of Covid protocol, the Caps also lost stalwart winger Tom Wilson - one of the team's most consistent performers in the early going - for the remainder of the night at the beginning of the third period; he is day-to-day with a lower body injury.
What Washington did get was a solid bounce-back game from Vitek Vanecek in goal, a terrific season debut from Jonas Siegenthaler on the blueline, and yeoman's work from the Nic Dowd line, which was tasked with going up against Buffalo's top unit of Taylor Hall, Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart. It wasn't always pretty for the Caps on Friday, but it was just enough for the two points.
"It was great," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette of the win. "We talked about it; it's adversity, and sometimes when you're faced with adversity, those are the sweetest wins. Those are the ones where you have to overcome some obstacles.
"We felt good about the lineup. We certainly missed the guys that aren't in there, but it was a really good win, a really good, hard-fought win for us."
The first period was a swift and fast-paced frame; the two sides played more than eight minutes without a whistle after the opening face-off, and there were only 16 draws total in the game's first 20 minutes.
Buffalo got on the board first, taking a 1-0 lead on an Eric Staal goal at 12:33. Victor Olofsson set up the Staal strike with a fine feed from behind the Washington net.
Just under four minutes later, the Caps got even when Nicklas Backstrom put back the rebound of a Brenden Dillon shot from the left point at 16:18. Wilson tipped Dillon's shot, picking up an assist to extend his point streak to four straight games.
Dowd staked the Caps to their first lead of the night at 4:14 of the second. Washington put together a good shift in the offensive zone, working the puck around the perimeter. Backstrom's line set the table, and Jakub Vrana made the play from below the goal line, making a strong feed to Dowd in the high slot. The pivot's one-timer went to the top left corner of the cage for a 2-1 Capitals lead.
Buffalo pulled even just past the midpoint of the middle frame when Dylan Cozens executed a swipe and snipe, forcing a turnover in neutral ice and ripping a frozen rope of a shot past Vanecek at 10:43 to make it a 2-2 contest.
For the 19-year-old native of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory - and the seventh overall pick In the 2019 NHL Draft - it was the first goal of his NHL career and it was a beauty.
"It was just a lot of excitement," says Cozens. "Obviously it's something I've dreamed about my whole life. To finally put it in the back of the net, it's just exciting."
Six seconds after the Cozens goal, Vrana and Buffalo's Tage Thompson were boxed for matching minors, putting the two sides at 4-on-4. Upon exiting the penalty box, Vrana joined his teammates in the attack zone, and he quickly netted his third goal of the season, scoring on a rebound of a Zdeno Chara shot at 13:07 to give the Caps the lead once again at 3-2.
The lead was short-lived; Buffalo responded 42 seconds later with the tying tally from Riley Sheahan. Sheahan carved to the net from down low on the left side, beating Vanecek with a backhander from just above the paint.
Second periods have been an adventure for the Caps in the early going, and this one was harrowing after the Sheahan goal. Washington spent most of the last six-plus minutes of the middle frame in its own end of the ice, but held off the Sabres and went into the third period all even for the fourth straight game.
And for the third straight game, the Caps and their opponent played to a scoreless final period, requiring extra hockey to be played. Washington finally got its only power play opportunity of the game with 9.2 seconds left in the third, an advantage that carried into the extra session. The Caps couldn't cash in, but Vanecek was perfect in the shootout and Carlson came through with the game-winner in the skills competition.
Dowd and linemates Garnet Hathaway and Carl Hagelin kept the Eichel trio from doing any damage on the scoreboard, getting some help from the goalpost and from Hall overpassing on a 2-on-0 down low in the early minutes of the second. The top Buffalo trio had its chances, but failed to click on six shots on net; they also missed the mark nine times.
"It's a big responsibility," says Hathaway of his line's Friday night assignment. "They've got a lot of high-end guys, especially on that line. It was one of those things that was a challenge, but it's one that I think we stepped up. If we look at it, there are a lot of things we can keep doing better. But I think it's a big steppingstone for us, to go against other team's top lines and still perform, too, and push it offensively against them."
Vanecek scuffled with rebound control in Tuesday's 5-4 overtime loss to the Penguins, but he was sharper in that regard on Friday. The win was his second in as many Friday night starts against Buffalo; he earned the first win of his NHL career a week ago in his NHL debut against the Sabres in western New York. He stopped 24 of 27 shots in Friday's win.
"I'm trying to grab experience from every game," says Vanecek. "This one was my third one, and I'm trying to be good on the ice, and I found a way to win the game."
Playing the third game of a four-game trip, the Sabres fell to 1-3-1 on the season with the loss.
"We bring no excuses though," says Sabres coach Ralph Krueger. "We need to find a way to get ourselves turned around here and put some wins together back-to-back and get ourselves back where we want to be."