At The Final Horn: Capitals 4 - Sabres 3

The Buffalo Sabres' rally fell short Friday night against the Washington Capitals.
Tage Thompson scored with 1:20 left in the third period to make it a one-goal game, but Washington shut the door to beat Buffalo 4-3 at KeyBank Center.
Henri Jokiharju and Casey Mittelstadt also scored for Buffalo. Dustin Tokarski made 29 saves in net.
Brenden Dillon, Alex Ovechkin, Justin Schultz and Jakub Vrana were Washington's goal scorers. Schultz also added two assists. Vitek Vanecek made 30 saves.
Vanecek is 5-0-1 against Buffalo this season with one shutout.

What happened

Washington opened the scoring 2:39 into the contest on their first shot of the game when Dillon fired a one-timer from the point in past Tokarski.
Ovechkin gave Washington a 2-0 lead with the 727th goal of his career when his cross-ice attempt bounced off Rasmus Dahlin in front of the net and in with 8:21 remaining in the first.
Buffalo got on the board with 1:34 left in the opening period on Jokiharju's wrist shot from the left wing that found twine.
The two clubs started the second period 4-on-4. The Capitals regained their two-goal advantage 28 seconds into the second period when Schultz's slap shot from the point, fired quickly after a faceoff win by Washington, beat Tokarski.
The Sabres made it a one-goal game with 9:52 remaining in the second period. Rasmus Asplund won a battle behind the Washington net and dished the puck to Mittelstadt in front, who put on a deke and roofed a shot over Vanecek.
Vrana made it 4-2 at the 9:48 mark of the third.
With 3:13 left, Tom Wilson thought he extended the lead to three goals when he potted a rebound, but Buffalo challenged the play and it was deemed to have been offside. The goal was taken off the board.
Thompson made it a one-goal game when he redirected in a low point shot by Rasmus Ristolainen with 1:20 remaining in regulation.
Thompson has goals in back-to-back games and is on a three-game point streak (2+1). He has four points over his last five games (3+1).

Roll the highlight film

Mittelstadt has six points (4+2) in his last six games. Here's his goal from tonight:

Worth mentioning

-Arttu Ruotsalainen made his NHL debut. The 23-year-old Finnish forward skated 15:52 and recorded one shot on goal for Buffalo.

-The Sabres honored Hometown Heroes throughout the night. Before the game, the team wore special warmup jerseys that featured the names of season ticket holders who are military members, veterans or frontline workers. Each jersey will be gifted to the season ticket holder at a later date.
-With the NHL Trade Deadline set for 3 p.m. on Monday, pending unrestricted free agent Taylor Hall was a healthy scratch for the third game in a row.

Coming up

The Sabres' next game is on the road. They'll play the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday at 2 p.m. at Wells Fargo Center. Catch the action on MSG and WGR 550. Pregame coverage on MSG will begin at 1:30.