Grubauer Celebrates Birthday with Win Over Buffalo

Caps goaltender Philipp Grubuaer almost always gives his team a chance to win when he starts, but he doesn't always get great offensive support from his teammates.

Friday was Grubauer's 25th birthday. He got a rare home start, his parents were both in attendance to see him play for the first time at the NHL level, and he turned in his usual excellent performance in goal. Grubauer made 32 saves, the Caps supported him with a goal in every period, and the result was his third win in five starts this season, a 3-1 triumph over the Buffalo Sabres.

"It's nice," says Grubauer. "It's more important for me to get the two points. I'm focused on the game and not my parents. When the puck drops, it's all business. But it's pretty special for me. It's probably one of my favorite moments."

Three goals worth of offensive support might not seem like a lot, but it was one goal more than the Capitals combined to score for Grubauer in his previous two starts.

"I think that's the privilege we have of having two great goalies," says Caps winger Daniel Winnik. "Either one that is in gives us a really, really good chance of winning. Grubi has played phenomenal this year so far, and it's a little unfortunate that we couldn't get him the shutout."

The victory over the Sabres was the fourth in five games on the Capitals' season long five-game homestand.

For the eighth straight game, the Caps got on the scoreboard first. A shift after Buffalo goaltender Anders Nilsson made a great stop on Justin Williams following Nicklas Backstrom's silky setup, Washington's fourth line combined to give the Caps an early 1-0 lead.

On its third shift of the night, the Caps trio of Lars Eller, Brett Connolly and Winnik combined to beat Nilsson, with the latter lighting the lamp for the third time this season at 5:08 of the first frame. Eller carried down the left side and threw the puck toward the Buffalo net. It kicked out front where Connolly got a stick on it, then it rolled to Winnik who put it behind Nilsson for a 1-0 Washington advantage.

Grubauer kept it that way with a terrific stop on Sabres winger Kyle Okposo during Buffalo's first power play of the night, and the Caps goalie came way out to thwart Sabres center Ryan O'Reilly late in the first.

Washington just missed a chance to go up 2-0 late in the first when rookie Zach Sanford made a terrific move to work through and around Sabres defenseman Cody Franson, putting himself in a one-on-one situation with Nilsson. The Buffalo netminder made a dazzling stop on Sanford to deny him his first NHL tally.

A few minutes after the midway mark of the second period, the Caps were able to double their lead on a broken rush play. Williams carried down the right wing side and into the Buffalo zone. He tried to thread a cross-ice feed for Backstrom, but the puck caught the skate of Buffalo blueliner Josh Gorges and hung in the slot. An onrushing Marcus Johansson promptly buried it for his eighth goal of the season at 13:25.

"Sometimes that what you need, to get a break," says Johansson. "I feel like we've been creating a lot of chances lately, and it was good to see one go in."

Buffalo scored midway through the third period to make it a 2-1 game at that point. Kyle Okposo made a strong play on the left wing wall, then fed Sam Reinhart. With O'Reilly setting a screen in front, Reinhart beat Grubauer with a wrist shot from the left circle to make it a one-goal game at 9:58 of the second.

Special teams were critical in the final period. Buffalo had three of its four power play chances during the game's final 21 minutes, and the last of those opportunities gave the Sabres' ninth-ranked extra-man unit a chance to tie the game. Washington weathered those penalty killing missions, and then the Caps showed some killer instinct on the power play, putting the game away for good on an extra man chance of their own late in regulation.

Buffalo was deemed guilty of having too many men on the ice with 4:20 remaining, and Washington needed less than half a minute's worth of power play time to restore its two-goal lead.

Andre Burakovsky curled out from behind the Buffalo net and threaded a cross-ice feed to Alex Ovechkin, who was parked in his office at the left dot. Nilsson stopped Ovechkin's one-timer, but kicked the rebound right to Connolly in front. The Washington winger fired it past NIlsson from the diamond with 3:55 left to ice the two points and finish off the homestand on a high note.

"In that spot, either it's going to be a rebound or a quick play in the slot to me," says Connolly. "I was fortunate that it came right on my stick, and it was a good time of the game to get one. It was good to see that one go in. It was a big two points. [The Sabres] were coming pretty hard there and it was good to see it go in."

Grubauer improved to 3-1-1 on the season while lowering his GAA to 1.80 and improving his save pct. to .936.

"He has been playing well," says Caps coach Barry Trotz of Grubauer. "Your backup goaltender takes all the tough starts. We gave him the last game of the homestand for us and [it was his] birthday. His parents had never seen him play, which was sort of cool, and I thought he played really well.

"We played well in front of him. When things got a little hairy on the penalty kill, he came up with a couple of big stops. His rebound control was really good. He made a big save sliding laterally early, when Ryan O'Reilly swam out of the corner and in front of the net, and he did a real good job of just fronting that the whole way and staying with it. Really good job by him and we had a lot of commitment. Our special teams were big in this game. Buffalo played well defensively and didn't give you much. And we didn't give them much. It was a grind."
Wrap It Up, I'll Take It -On his 25th birthday and with his parents watching him play live for the first time at the NHL level, Caps goaltender Philipp Grubauer made 32 saves to help Washington to a 3-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night. The victory enabled the Caps to put a positive coda on a season-long five-game homestand; the Caps went 4-1 while outscoring the opposition by a combined 17-8.

Washington won the special teams battle, and the Caps got goals from Daniel Winnik, Marcus Johansson and Brett Connolly in support of Grubauer.

Going into their homestand finale against the Sabres, the Capitals knew they needed to stay out of the penalty box as much as possible. The Sabres entered the game with the league's ninth best power play, but Buffalo also came in as the league's least prolific team in scoring at five-on-five.

Washington took four minor penalties in the game, but three of those came in the game's final 21 minutes and Grubauer was at his best when the Sabres had the extra man. He stopped all seven Buffalo shots while the Sabres were on the power play.

"On the first one, I think we had three real good opportunities," says Sabres coach Dan Bylsma. "We had [Kyle] Okposo on the back door, a one-timer from [Risto] Ristolianen and then there was one more in the slot, off a rebound off a shot from the point.

"[The Capitals] are a team that puts a lot of pressure up top; they put on a lot of pressure with their forwards. When we were able to move the puck around, we got opportunities to score. And we got opportunities on the last one again. I think we probably had more than a handful of scoring chances with the power play with nothing to show for it."

Having pulled to within a goal midway through the third period, Buffalo had a chance to tie the game when Andre Burakovsky was whistled for a late penalty for delay of game (puck over glass).

"They do a really good job of just wristing pucks to the net and four guys converging," says Winnik of the Buffalo power play. "So we have to really focus on getting in shooting lanes as opposed to taking angles on guys at the points. Even a couple of times when we had chances to clear, they did a real good job of forcing you to make a mistake. I thought we did a really good job tonight of focusing on our clears and talking, and that makes a big difference for the penalty kill."

Goals For Grubi - Three goals worth of offensive support may not seem like a lot, but it is quite a bounty for Grubauer. The Caps had scored exactly one goal in support of Grubauer in each of his two previous starts, and last season Washington scored two or fewer goals in 12 of Grubauer's 17 starts.

"He deserved that," says Johansson of Grubauer's birthday performance. "I think every game he's played this year he has been playing really well for us. He gave us a chance every night. He did that again. We've got two unbelievable goalies back there and they give us a chance every night. It's awesome, and to get that win on his birthday is good for him."

Grubauer improved to 3-1-1 on the season. He lowered his GAA to 1.80 and he improved his save pct. to .936.

"The goalies always have to be really good in order to win games," says Caps defenseman Karl Alzner. "And he just made a lot of saves look kind of routine. He was just blocking pucks, he was finding the ones that were coming through from the point because we did our scout and we knew that they just wanted to send them through. He just found ways to get his eyes on it. We saw him working on it in practice [Friday] morning and it clearly paid off."

Firsts - On Winnik's first-period goal, both Connolly and Lars Eller earned their first assists in a Capitals sweater. Connolly's power-play goal in the third was his first extra-man tally as a member of the Caps.

Connolly's multiple-point game was his first since coming to Washington, and it's the sixth of his NHL career.

Down On The Farm - The AHL Hershey Bears spent Saturday night on the road, taking on the Thunderbirds in Springfield. Hershey came away with a 5-2 victory.

Liam O'Brien started the scoring for the Bears with an unassisted tally at 4:30 of the first period. But them Springfield struck twice in the game's first 20 minutes, and Hershey entered the second period down a goal, 2-1.

Hershey knotted the score at 2-2 at the 15:13 mark of the second on Christian Djoos' power-play goal - his second of the season - with help from Travis Boyd and Jakub Vrana. Nathan Walker put the Bears ahead for good in the final minute of the middle period, getting help from Darren Dietz and Vrana.

The Bears iced the game with a pair of empty-netters late in the third. Zach Sill notched his second of the season and Walker scored his second of the game.

Joe Cannata made 25 saves in the Hershey nets to improve his record to 6-1-3 on the season.

The 10-4-3-1 Bears are currently on a 4-0-1-0 run. They are back in action on Saturday night at Giant Center, hosting the Thunderbirds in the back end of a back-to-back, home-and-home set.

By The Numbers -Matt Niskanen led Washington with 23:09 in ice time on Friday … Connolly paced the Caps with four shots on net, and Niskanen led the way with nine shot attempts … Alzner, Connolly and Dmitry Orlov each had three hits to lead Washington … Alzner led the Capitals with three blocked shots … Jay Beagle won 11 of 17 face-offs (65%) … Johansson's goal was his fourth game-winning tally of the season. He is tied for second in the league in game-winning goals. His goal in Friday's game was Johansson's first at home this season; he has scored seven goals in Washington's nine road games.