At The Final Horn | Sabres fall in shootout to Capitals

For the fourth time in a row, the Buffalo Sabres needed to go past regulation to earn a result. On Friday against the Washington Capitals, their three-game winning streak was snapped in a 4-3 shootout loss at KeyBank Center.
Jeff Skinner scored twice and Victor Olofsson added another for Buffalo in regulation. Dustin Tokarski made 37 saves on 40 shots, including seven in overtime.
Alex Ovechkin scored and netted the shootout-deciding goal for the Capitals. Anthony Mantha and Nick Jensen also tallied. Ilya Samsonov made 20 saves through 65 minutes of play.
The last time the Sabres played four consecutive games that went past regulation was from March 10 to 17, 2012. The team went 2-0-2 during that stretch and three of the four games ended in a shootout.
Buffalo is 3-0-1 in this stretch with two shootout results.

How it happened

Mantha put Washington on the board first with a backhand goal 9:15 into the game.

Skinner tied things up when his backhander from the right wing made its way in through traffic with 4:11 remaining in the opening period for his 25th goal of the year.
The Capitals took the lead back 4:06 into the second period. Shortly after Skinner was denied on a breakaway, the Capitals came back up the ice and a point shot by Jensen found the back of the net.
After an extended shift in the offensive zone, Skinner beat Samsonov five hole with 9:37 left to tie the game.
Buffalo went ahead 3-2 just 2:02 later when Olofsson finished off a pretty passing play between him, Casey Mittelstadt and Rasmus Asplund.
Then off a faceoff with 3:13 remaining in the period, Ovechkin one-timed a shot bar down to tie things up again.
Washington outshot the Sabres 9-5 in the third period and 7-5 in overtime.

At the end of overtime, Ovechkin had a chance to win it, but Rasmus Dahlin and Dustin Tokarski made sure it didn't go in.
In the shootout, Thompson scored in the top of the first round and then Nicklas Backstrom missed on his opportunity.
Alex Tuch was going to go out for the top of the second round, but had an issue with his skate so Casey Mittelstadt went instead. Samsonov denied his shot. Evgeny Kuznetsov scored stick side to even things up in the bottom of the second.
In the third round, Tuch missed wide and then Ovechkin lifted a backhander in to give Washington the extra point.

Roll the highlight film

Here's Olofsson's goal:

Worthy of a mention

With two goals, Skinner recorded his eighth multi-goal game of the campaign. He is now tied with Chris Kreider and Alex Ovechkin for the fifth-most multi-goal games in the NHL this season.
Both of Skinner's goals tonight have come at even strength. With 23 even-strength tallies, Skinner has moved into a tie for 12th in the league this season.
The Sabres have earned points in four-stragiht games, in six of their last seven, and are 7-3-1 through the month of March.

Coming up

The Sabres next hit the road for two games. They'll open the trip when they play the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday at 5 p.m. Pregame coverage on MSG starts at 4:30. Then they'll take on the Blackhawks in Chicago on Monday.