Caps Stun Sabres in Shootout, 5-4

Losing Wednesday night's game against the Buffalo Sabres at Capital One Arena wasn't an option for the Capitals. Tied with the Sabres in the Eastern Conference standings at the beginning of the evening, the Caps simply could not afford to lose and to fall behind Buffalo, which holds two games in hand on Washington. But the game played out like too many recent games have for the Caps; a difficult start led to a multi-goal deficit which in turn led to a spirited comeback, but too often those comebacks have fallen shy of fruition.

But in Wednesday's must-win game, the Caps rewrote the script. They've dealt with constant adversity since before the puck dropped on opening night this season, and that was the case on Wednesday as well. On this night though, resiliency overcame the adversity. The Caps never led in Wednesday's game, but they somehow skated off with two points in a gritty and grinding 5-4 comeback victory in the shootout.
Making his first start since Feb. 23, Charlie Lindgren shook off a tough start and battled through the back of the game with some big stops before thwarting both Alex Tuch and Tage Thompson in the skills competition to earn his first victory since Jan. 31. Both Evgeny Kuznetsov and T.J. Oshie cashed in on their opportunities in the shootout, lifting the Caps to victory.
Wednesday's serving of adversity actually started nearly 24 hours earlier. Following a 5-3 loss to the Rangers in New York on Tuesday, the Caps dealt with some travel woes that got them home way later than planned or expected, and with a big game looming against Buffalo, which was waiting in D.C. and resting up for the game while the Caps were struggling to get home and get some sleep.
Washington's best players came to the fore when it mattered most, but this was a team victory with contributions throughout the lineup. And for most of the evening, it didn't have the look of a comeback victory.
"This was a huge game for us, and we needed a massive game," says Caps' center Dylan Strome. "A lot of guys stepped up and played really well. Our fourth line did a great job against a really, really good line, one of the best lines in the League. They didn't give them too much, and obviously they got no goals. They did a great job against them, and we found a way to come back.
"Obviously being down two in the third period without that much time remaining - like 12 minutes maybe - it was a huge game."
For the second time in as many nights, the Caps were down a goal on the opposition's first shot on net of the night and down two goals at the end of the first frame. Buffalo jumped in front at 4:43 of the first on an Ilya Lyubushkin point shot through traffic, and it doubled that lead when J.J. Peterka finished a Jack Quinn setup on a 2-on-1 rush at 8:50.
Soon after the Peterka goal, Washington winger Nicolas Aube-Kubel drew a penalty call to puts the Caps on the power play, and they took advantage of the opportunity to halve the lead. Playing through a lower body injury that kept him out of Tuesday's game against the Rangers in New York, Caps' captain Alex Ovechkin started a play that culminated in an Oshie power-play goal at 10:03 of the first.
But a turnover late in the frame led to Tyson Jost's unassisted goal with 1:54 left in the first, sending the Caps to the room for intermission in a 3-1 hole. At that point of the night, Lindgren had yielded three goals on six shots.
"I'm not going to lie," says Lindgren. "That first period, I didn't really feel myself for whatever reason. It just felt like I wasn't really on it. After that first period, I got back into the locker room here, and Scotty Murray - the goalie coach - came up and talked to me. He just said, 'You've got 23 guys here that love you.' And I was thinking about my dad in the stands, too.
"When you don't feel good, you've just got to find ways to persevere and battle through it, and certainly it felt like I did that tonight. But more importantly, the whole team did that tonight."
Lindgren kept the Sabres at bay in the second, but the Caps weren't able to cut into the lead, either. They still trailed 3-1 after 40 minutes of play. And that wasn't all.
An ailing Oshie missed some shifts in the second. Rasmus Sandin ate a shot and hobbled off late in the second, looking like a guy who was done for the night, but he came out and played the third with no ill effects. Tom Wilson was hobbled early in the third, and he spent some time grimacing and shaking it off on the bench, and he soon returned as well. Nick Jensen wasn't so fortunate; he departed before the midpoint of the third and did not return, leaving the Caps with five blueliners the rest of the way.
Nic Dowd's line handled the tough assignment of neutralizing the Tage Thompson line, and the Dowd and linemates Aube-Kubel and Aliaksei Protas set the tone for the comeback with a dominant offensive zone shift to start the third, setting the table for Kuznetsov's goal from the slot at 1:32 of the third, making it a 3-2 contest.
Buffalo bounced back less and restored its lead to two goals for a third time when Payton Krebs fed an unattended Zemgus Girgensons in front to make it 4-2 for the Sabres at 5:22.
After Lindgren made perhaps his best stop of the night on Thompson midway through the third, the Caps again drew within a goal when Ovechkin tipped home a Trevor van Riemsdyk shot at 10:30 of the third, again pulling Washington within one.
When Ovechkin was whistled for a slashing call on Lyubushkin with just 3:42 remaining, the Caps' comeback again appeared to be doomed. But Matt Irwin drew an unwise roughing call on Tuch to even things up at 4-on-4, and giving the Caps some residual power play time with which to work. Laviolette pulled Lindgren for an extra attacker, and for the first time this season, the Caps scored a late tying tally with their netminder pulled.
From below the goal line, Nicklas Backstrom sauced a vintage feed to the front for Tom Wilson, who quickly put it to the far side with 1:08 remaining, tying the game at 4-4 and ensuring the Caps at least a point. But again, the Caps could not lose. A point wouldn't help if Buffalo got two and left town with a standings lead over Washington.
The Caps barely bad the puck in overtime until the final minute, when Dylan Cozens was boxed for tripping Oshie, putting Washington on a 4-on-3 power play. Three times in a span of 13 seconds, Sandin teed up Ovechkin from his left dot office. Buffalo goaltender Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen stopped two of those bids and the other missed, and the game headed to the skills competition where Lindgren, Kuznetsov and Oshie sealed the two crucial points for the Caps.
"We had a real good start, and we got away from our game," says Sabres' coach Don Granato. "We played way too relaxed after that, as if we felt that it was going to be an easier night than what it was. We generated scoring chances, but we didn't score.
"We dropped the level of focus and intensity, and it added it. It bit us."
The Caps couldn't lose, and they didn't.
"The game didn't go the way we wanted [Tuesday] night and then after the game, it didn't go exactly as planned either," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "You get home at tough hour, [the Sabres] are here, they're young, they're waiting. The points are important for them as well.
"We dig ourselves a hole, and we keep fighting out of it. A couple of guys get dinged up on the back end, we keep pushing through it. The power play had big goals tonight, the penalty kill did a good job. The guys in the shootout were excellent. In the overtime, we just couldn't win the faceoff. I don't think we gave up a lot - other than the time - and we just lost the possession; you've got to get possession of that puck and try to make something happen, and we weren't able to do that.
"But I thought we defended well even in the 3-on-3 when we didn't have the puck. Then the two shoot moves are outstanding, and Chucky made two big saves in the shootout. We earn ourselves two points, and we needed that."