Vanecek makes 30 saves, wins NHL debut for Capitals against Sabres

BUFFALO -- Vitek Vanecek made 30 saves for the Washington Capitals in his NHL debut, a 2-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Friday.

Vanecek was selected by the Capitals in the second round (No. 39) in the 2014 NHL Draft. The 25-year-old from the Czech Republic played the previous five seasons for Hershey in the American Hockey League.
"I think it was a good game; the dream came true. I'm so happy we won," Vanecek said. "I was a little bit nervous [the first] couple of minutes. But when they shoot the three shots early, I [was] just feeling better and better. When they had their power plays, I was feeling good."
Tom Wilson had a goal and an assist for the Capitals (2-0-0), who won their second straight against the Sabres under new coach Peter Laviolette.
"I think we've changed a lot of things and there's definitely been that buy-in," Wilson said. "Yesterday was a great team effort. Tonight a little slow to start, but I think we got there in the third, and we're just going to keep building on it because it's a new system and just trust the guy next to you to go out there and get it done."

Rasmus Ristolainen scored, and Linus Ullmark made 19 saves for the Sabres (0-2-0), who were 0-for-5 on the power play.
"I think the disappointing thing for all of us would be the power plays we were able to get," Buffalo coach Ralph Krueger said. "We had unbelievable discipline again today with no penalties taken, but all those power play opportunities, then the 6-on-5 at the end, coming out empty-handed is certainly the reason we lost this game. I thought the 5-on-5 game was outstanding. We'll take that on any night. Our power play just didn't get the job done today."
Buffalo forward Jeff Skinner said, "You're going to have good games where you don't win and maybe this was one of those for us tonight, but this game is about results. This league is about results. We need to get back at it, keep working and try to get a win the next game."
Jakub Vrana put the Capitals ahead 1-0 at 1:34 of the second period when Wilson sent him in on a break at the blue line.
Ristolainen's shot from the point tied it 1-1, beating a screened Vanecek 31 seconds into the third period.
"There's not much of the 5-on-5 game that we didn't like tonight," Krueger said. "You can take a lot of confidence out of that game, and hopefully the guys, they're able to absorb this pain properly and continue with the process. Really, really good skating, lots of puck pressure, good puck movement, support, all the things we've been trying to get here already in game two. Pleased with the execution."

Wilson made it 2-1 from the right circle at 7:47.
"Where we weren't quite on point where we needed to be, I thought that Tom was on point from start to finish," Laviolette said. "The way he worked and the way he competed, the way he skated; his strides were meaningful, his battle level was high, his physicality was high. He had a huge goal to get us back on top in the third, but I really liked the way Tom played tonight."
NOTE: Capitals defenseman Brenden Dillon played his 600th NHL game. He had two hits and one shot on goal in 19:25 of ice time.