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Shootout success against the Sabres: Capitals beat Sabres 4-3 (SO)

By Chris Cerullo

 3 Comments

March 25, 2022 9:44 pm

The Washington Capitals traveled to Buffalo to take on the lowly Sabres after losing two in a row at home in regulation. Could the Caps right the ship or would the Sabres win their fourth in a row?

Anthony Mantha opened the scoring with a pretty tic-tac-goal. Jeff Skinner responded later in the first with a backhand strike to tie things back up. Nick Jensen gave the Caps their lead back with a rifled wrister past Dustin Tokarski.

Jeff Skinner grabbed his second of the night to tie the game once more and Victor Olofsson slid one home to give his squad their first lead. Alex Ovechkin absolutely slammed home a game-tying one-timer off of a faceoff.

Nada in overtime, so here are your shootout bullets.

  • Thompson put the biscuit in the basket
  • Backstrom did NOT put the biscuit in the basket
  • Mittelstadt did NOT put the biscuit in the basket
  • Kuznetsov put the biscuit in the basket
  • Tuch did NOT put the biscuit in the basket
  • Ovechkin put the biscuit in the basket

Capitals beat Sabres 4-3!

  • The Sabres were absolutely dog water in the first period and the Caps really didn’t take full advantage of that. You probably want a save from Samsonov on that backhand but he was screened a tad. The Caps had five high danger chances at five-on-five in the first 20 minutes and the Sabres had a grand total of zero.
  • I just realized the Caps have like a million former Sabres on this roster. Conor Sheary, Marcus Johansson, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby (lol), Matt Irwin, and Johan Larsson have all spent some time with Buffalo in the past.
  • Can we talk about how Jeff Skinner has chosen Party in the U.S.A. as his goal song? When is someone going to blast The Climb after scoring now? That song came out 13 years ago by the way.

  • I thought the Caps were good again in the second…outside of like a five-minute stretch that saw Buffalo score twice. The Sabres had all of 13 shots after forty minutes. Samsonov was excellent on that Skinner breakaway but then very leaky only minutes later when Skinner beat him again. The duality of Sam.
  • Alex Ovechkin scored his 41st goal of the season and 771st of his career with a one-time rocket straight off a faceoff. That faceoff was won by Evgeny Kuznetsov who extended his point streak to 11 games with the assist. Caps PR says only ten players this season have had a point streak of at least 11 games. Kuzy revival in full force.
  • Connor McMichael didn’t follow his man all the way to the redline and it cost the Caps a goal. He was then promptly benched for the rest of the period which I guess you could say was “deserved” but at the same time, it’d be nice if a young player that has been playing extremely well lately was given a chance to get his mistake back.
  • FOCO is honoring Nicklas Backstrom with a dope 1000 point bobblehead. Check out Ian’s post for the details on how to secure yours because they’re on pace to sell out this weekend.

  • Good third overall but again I was not a fan of the handful of just chaotic mess shifts that can turn a good period into a bad one very quickly. Ovi was playing goalie at one point.
  • What a crazy overtime period. That was fun to watch.
  • The Saint Peter’s Peacocks are moving on to the Elite Eight! The first 15-seed to ever do so.

The Caps play at home tomorrow against the New Jersey Devils and before the game they’ll honor Nicklas Backstrom for his 1,000th assist!

Headline photo courtesy of @real_jon_c/Twitter

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