At The Final Horn: Sabres 5 - Capitals 2

Dustin Tokarski made 27 saves to earn his first NHL victory in 5 years and 124 days as the Buffalo Sabres defeated the Washington Capitals 5-2 on Thursday at Capital One Arena.
Tokarski's last win came on December 12, 2015 when he was a member of the Montreal Canadiens. It's the 16th-longest span between victories in NHL history.
Sam Reinhart, Victor Olofsson, Casey Mittelstadt, Anders Bjork and Tage Thompson all scored for Buffalo on Thursday.
Bjork recorded two points, including his first goal as a member of the Sabres. Dylan Cozens posted the first multi-point game of his young career with two assists.

Dmitri Orlov and Anthony Mantha were the Capitals' goal scorers.
Vitek Vanecek started for Washington, but gave up four goals on 21 shots and was replaced by Craig Anderson with 6:37 remaining in the second period. Anderson stopped all eight shots he saw.
The Sabres are 5-2-3 over their last 10 games.

What happened

Reinhart opened the scoring when he deflected in a Dylan Cozens wrist shot from the point with 1:10 remaining in the first period.
With 22.5 seconds remaining the opening period, Orlov tied the game when his slap shot through traffic beat Tokarski blocker side.
Olofsson picked up an errant pass at the Capitals blue line and picked the far-side top corner to give Buffalo the lead back 1:36 into the second period.
Buffalo went ahead 3-1 at the 5:42 mark of the middle frame. With three seconds left on a penalty kill, Mittelstadt skated in alone down the left wing and roofed a shot over Vanecek's glove for the first shorthanded goal of his career.
Mantha scored on a delayed penalty, redirecting in a cross-ice feed from John Carlson 9:59 into the second to make it 3-2.
The Sabres regained their two-goal edge on Bjork's first goal as a Sabre. He one-timed in a pass from the slot from Cozens with 6:37 remaining in the second.
With that goal, Anderson replaced Vanecek in net.
Thompson added an empty-netter with 42.5 seconds left in regulation.

Roll the highlight film

Let's take a look at Bjork's first with the Sabres:,

Worth mentioning

-Twelve of Reinhart's 15 goals have been scored in road games. That's tied for third-most road goals in the NHL.
-Bjork has three points (1+2) in two games with Buffalo since being acquired from Boston at the Trade Deadline on Monday.
-Kyle Okposo was hit in the head by a Matt Irwin shoot-in 9:27 into the game. He did not return.
Buffalo's injury list also includes forwards Jack Eichel, Riley Sheahan and Zemgus Girgensons, defensemen Jake McCabe and Will Borgen, and goaltenders Linus Ullmark and Carter Hutton.

Coming up

Buffalo opens up a five-game homestand on Saturday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Catch the game at 2 p.m. on NBC and WGR 550.