Ovechkin scores No. 727, Capitals hold off Sabres

BUFFALO -- Alex Ovechkin scored to help the Washington Capitals to a 4-3 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Friday.

It was Ovechkin's 727th NHL goal, moving him within four of Marcel Dionne for fifth in history.
Justin Schultz had a goal and two assists, Brenden Dillon had a goal and an assist, and Lars Eller had two assists for the Capitals (26-11-4). Vitek Vanecek made 30 saves.
The Capitals lost 4-2 to the Boston Bruins on Thursday.
"Not the effort or the result we wanted last night. So it was important for us to come out tonight and get the two points," Schultz said. "I thought we played pretty well. There's some areas of improvement, but we got the job done. It was a tough back to back. And we can move on now."
Henri Jokiharju, Casey Mittelstadt and Tage Thompson scored, and Dustin Tokarski made 29 saves for the Sabres (9-25-6), who have lost two in a row after going 3-0-2 in their previous five games.
Dillon's slap shot from the point gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead at 2:39 of the first period.
Ovechkin made it 2-0 at 11:39 when his pass intended for Tom Wilson deflected off Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin into the net. It was his 457th even-strength goal, passing Brett Hull (456) for sixth in NHL history.
Jokiharju cut it to 2-1 from the top of the left circle at 18:26.
Schultz scored from the top of the circles 28 seconds into the second period to make it 3-1.
"We were talking about it for a long time now, getting the pucks on the blue line and trying to create something in front of the net, and we did that today," Capitals forward Jakub Vrana said. "We got rewarded for it. Just overall game, I still think there are some windows we can still be better at, but like 'Schultzy' said, it was a big win for us, especially feeling good about going to the next game."

Sabres forward Rasmus Asplund beat Schultz to the puck behind the net before passing to Mittelstadt, who beat Vanecek top left corner from the right of the net to narrow it to 3-2 at 10:08.
"It's something we've been emphasizing is, just get more pucks to the net, getting harder on the forecheck, putting pressure on people's [defense] and trying to get pucks back," Mittelstadt said, "Obviously 'Aspy' did a great job there. He pulled the puck away and made a great pass to me. My job wasn't so hard, just made a little move on the side of the net."
Vrana ended his 13-game goal drought and put the Capitals ahead 4-2 when he one-timed Schultz's backhand pass from the right circle at 9:48 of the third period.
"It was a big goal," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. "Great play by Schultzy, I think, to slide it to him. He's got a really got shot, an unbelievable shot. It's quick. It's usually on point and it was nice to see him deliver that. You take a goal like that and build some confidence off it and have it moving in the right direction as well."

Evgeny Kuznetsov scored on a rebound at 16:41 but the goal was overturned after the Sabres challenged for offside.
With Tokarski pulled for an extra attacker, Thompson tipped in a point shot by Rasmus Ristolainen to make it 4-3 at 18:40.
Buffalo lost 6-3 to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.
"The effort had to be better tonight. I was happy to see the players had that bad taste in their mouth," Sabres coach Don Granato said. "The sense I got from them was they wanted a little bit of redemption tonight. The only thing you can control is your effort and your resolve, and we showed both despite trailing early and trailing late. Kept fighting all the way to the end. … The outcome being a loss, we're not happy about that. But the other components were where they should be."
NOTES: The Capitals are 7-0-2 in their past nine games against the Sabres. … Vanecek is 16-7-3 and leads rookies in wins. … Sabres forward Arttu Ruotsalainen played 15:52 and had one shot on goal and two hits in his NHL debut. … Sabres forward Victor Olofsson played his 100th NHL game.