Caps Fall to Sabres in OT, 4-3

The Caps led in the first and third periods, and Buffalo led briefly in the second frame in Sunday's exhibition opener between the two teams. But Washington lost its hold on that third period advantage, falling 4-3 to the Sabres in overtime.

Buffalo's Jack Quinn knotted the game at 3-3 on a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in regulation, and Vinnie Hinostroza won it for the Sabres at the 1:15 mark of overtime.
"There were some good things," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "There was times I thought we played really well, and there were times where I thought we needed to have more bite to our game and more compete. It went back and forth in pockets, so consistency with that.
"There were a lot of good things that we did defensively, and we shut them down for a while, and then there was a lot of big blunders where we left somebody open on the back door. So there was good and bad in there. We'll go back and look at it, and try to teach it moving through camp on areas where we can be better."
Both teams dressed a plethora of prospects and youngsters, and the flow of play went back and forth with both teams holding the upper hand at various points of the contest.
Aliaksei Protas drew an early holding call on Sabres blueliner Lawrence Pilut, putting the Caps on the power play at 2:48 of the first. Washington took advantage of the opportunity to forge a 1-0 lead. Erik Gustafsson kept the puck in the zone at center point, then dished a feed to Anthony Mantha at the right dot. From there, a locked and loaded Mantha drove a one-time blast past Buffalo netminder Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen to make it a 1-0 game at 4:15 of the first.
Buffalo spent a bit more time in the Washington zone during the back half of the first period, but Caps goalie Zach Fucale was up to the task, stopping all 11 shots he faced in the first, including a pair of excellent anticipatory stops on which he had to move laterally.
The Sabres pulled even on a power play of their own at 4:25 of the second, getting the tying tally from Dylan Cozens on a shot from the inside of the right circle.
Washington wasn't able to cash in on a second power play chance midway through the second period, and the Sabres took a short-lived lead just after Riley Sheahan exited the box for Buffalo. After taking a feed from former Caps draftee Chase Priskie, Sheahan gained the zone on the left side in a 2-on-1 situation. Rather than forcing a pass through coverage, he patiently waited for the late arriving Tyson Kozak to gain the zone. Sheahan fed him perfectly, and Kozak beat Fucale with a shot from the slot, tucking it under the bar to make it 2-1 for the Sabres at 9:16.
The Caps needed only 26 seconds to respond, and No. 26 Nic Dowd started the scoring play with a steal in neutral ice. He quickly sent Aliaksei Protas into Buffalo ice on a 2-on-1, and Protas issued a cross-ice feed for Conor Sheary, who swept a shot over Luukkonen. Sheary's goal made it 2-2 at 9:42 of the second.
Hunter Shepard came on in relief of Fucale at 10:04 of the second; the latter stopped 15 of 17 shots during his time in the crease.
Local product Joe Snively put the Caps back in the lead early in the third when he tipped home Vincent Iorio's right point shot at 5:43. Washington nursed that one-goal cushion into the latter stages of the contest, but Gustafsson's holding penalty gave the Sabres a late power play. Quinn tied the game on a weak side shot with Lukkonen on the bench for an extra attacker, a 6-on-4 strike from just outside the paint.
Hinostroza ended the afternoon with a nifty redirect from the slot. Pilut hit the veteran winger on the tape, and Hinostroza tipped it past Shepard to send the Sabres home with a victory.
"We looked a little nervous, a little hesitant at the start, the first 5-10 minutes or so," says Sabres coach Don Granato. "But we obviously finished much more aggressive, much more assertive, and it was very nice to see that."