Dylan Strome scored the go-ahead goal in the third period to help the Washington Capitals to a 4-2 win against the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.
Tom Wilson scored twice and John Carlson had three assists for the Capitals, who have won four straight games and are 8-0-1 in their past nine. Logan Thompson made 19 saves.
Jason Zucker and Jiri Kulich scored and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 27 saves for the Sabres, who have lost nine games in a row (0-6-3).
Zucker gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead at 1:36 of the first period. Jordan Greenway’s deflection of Ryan McLeod’s shot from along the right wall went off Zucker’s skate in front of the net and trickled under Thompson’s right pad.
Wilson tied the game at 1-1 on the power play at 17:09 of the first. Washington controlled the puck off a faceoff and moved it around before Carlson smacked a shot-pass from the left circle that Wilson redirected from the slot over Luukkonen’s left shoulder.
Wilson’s second power-play tally put the hosts ahead at 5:11 of the second. Luukkonen made a pad save on Jakob Chychrun’s shot from the high slot, but the rebound popped out in front of the net, where Wilson quickly jumped on it to sweep it past the goaltender’s left skate for a 2-1 advantage.
However, the visitors started to pick up their game and capitalized when Kulich tied the contest 2-2 at 7:24.
Bowen Byram one-timed a feed from Tage Thompson from the middle of the blue line, and Kulich was in front to deflect it into the net.
Strome made it 3-2 Capitals at 11:05 of the third period when he redirected Carlson’s pass in the slot glove side on Luukkonen for his 10th goal of the season.
Chychrun scored an empty-net goal from his own zone for the 4-2 final.
–Field Level Media
