Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 31 saves and the Buffalo Sabres beat the visiting Washington Capitals 4-3 in a shootout on Saturday night.
Luukkonen made five saves in overtime and was perfect in the five-round shootout as the Sabres ended a three-game losing streak in which each loss was by a 4-3 score in overtime.
Buffalo’s Bowen Byram scored the only goal in the shootout.
Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch and Isak Rosen scored in regulation for the Sabres.
Dylan Strome, Aliaksei Protas and Sonny Milano scored for the Capitals, who have lost four straight. Charlie Lindgren made 21 saves. Alex Ovechkin remains at 899 career goals.
Buffalo went 0-for-3 on the power play. Washington went 0-for-4 and is 0-for-13 during its losing streak.
The Capitals, who had scored two goals in their past three games, struck twice in the first 2:15 Saturday night.
Strome made it 1-0 at 1:07 of the first period, scoring from the slot when he knocked in the rebound of Ryan Leonard’s shot.
Protas increased the lead to 2-0 at 2:15. Tom Wilson’s pass sent Protas in on a breakaway, and he passed to Connor McMichael in the slot and knocked the return pass home.
Thompson pulled the Sabres within 2-1 at 2:30, when he ripped a one-timer past Lindgren from the slot off a pass from Jason Zucker behind the net.
According to NHL Public Relations, it marked the fastest three goals by two teams to start a game this season.
Tuch tied the score 2-2 at 10:02, scoring on a wrist shot in the low slot off a pass from Jack Doan on the rush.
Rosen gave the Sabres a 3-2 lead when he collected a drop pass from Jack Quinn and fired a wrist shot past Lindgren from the right circle for the first goal of his NHL career at 18:45.
The second period was scoreless until 19:17 when Milano deflected Matt Roy’s point shot past Luukkonen to tie it 3-3.
–Field Level Media
