Vanecek, Capitals send Sabres to fourth straight loss

WASHINGTON -- Vitek Vanecek made 22 saves to help the Washington Capitals defeat the Buffalo Sabres 3-1 at Capital One Arena on Thursday.

Nicklas Backstrom, Tom Wilson and Conor Sheary scored for Washington (8-4-3), which has won two in a row after a four-game losing streak. Vanecek, a rookie, made his 12th consecutive start.
"He's given us an opportunity to win hockey games from the start of the year," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. "But I think what we were trying to do was put a better game in front of him. It's been a little bit better the last couple of games. But he's given us a chance. He did a good job tonight."
Victor Oloffson scored a power-play goal for Buffalo (4-7-2), which has lost four straight, three after a two-week pause due to NHL COVID-19 protocol. Linus Ullmark made 18 saves.
"It's a tough situation we're in right now," Sabres coach Ralph Krueger said. "This is now psychology. This is now persistence and character that we need to have to stick with it. Structurally, again we liked the effort, the neutralizing of Washington in a lot of phases of the game, but there's not enough up front for us to get away with winning games if we score one goal or no goals."
The Capitals took a 1-0 lead at 17:23 of the first period after Ullmark made a save on Alex Ovechkin's shot, and during the scramble Backstrom knocked in the loose puck for a power-play goal.
Backstrom has seven points (three goals, four assists) during a five-game point streak.

Wilson made it 2-0 at 6:38 of the second period when he forced a turnover at the Capitals blue line and skated down 2-on-0 with Nic Dowd for a shorthanded breakaway goal.
"[Dowd] was screaming at me, 'No! No! No!' He wanted me to take it to the net and I was lucky to put it in," Wilson said. "But he made it very clear that he didn't want to be part of that two-on-none. That was kind of funny."
Krueger said, "Well, we just keep finding ways to disappoint ourselves. It's the first shorthander of the season at a very untimely time. They scored on their first power play. We needed to answer and get right back in the game. Instead of 1-1, it's 2-0, and it took us 5-6 minutes to recover from that one."
Sheary scored off the rebound of Lars Eller's shot at 7:28 of the third period to give Washington a 3-0 lead. It was Sheary's fourth goal of the season and second in two games.
"I like everything about his game right now. He is working really hard," Laviolette said. "If you work really hard on the ice good things will happen for you, and that's an example of what he's doing."
Olofsson pulled the Sabres within 3-1 at 11:27 when he beat Vanecek with a wrist shot from the left circle on a power play.
"Everyone is obviously frustrated," Olofsson said. "We want to win and we're battling right now. We're working very hard and we want to do the right things. I think the atmosphere and the mood in the locker room is still good before and during games."

NOTES: Eller's assist on Sheary's goal was his 300th NHL point. The forward has 134 goals and 166 assists in 765 games. … Sabres forward Curtis Lazar and defenseman Brandon Montour returned after each missed two games while in the COVID-19 protocol. Lazar played 8:01 and blocked two shots. Montour had a shot on goal in 19:08. … Olofsson has six points (four goals, two assists) in his past six games against Washington.