For most of the last three weeks, the Capitals have been out on the road, roaming the Northeast quadrant of the continent and playing hockey games every other night or so. They finally reached the end of a rugged stretch of schedule in which they played eight of their last nine games on the road, and they put a coda and an exclamation point on it with a 6-0 victory over the struggling Sabres in Buffalo on Monday night.
Two months to the day after he earned his first NHL victory with a 2-1 win over the Sabres here in Buffalo, Vitek Vanecek notched his first career NHL shutout with a 23-save effort. Vanecek got multitudes of support; all four lines contributed to the offensive cause, and a dozen of Washington's 18 skaters registered at least one point.
Alex Ovechkin scored Washington's final goal of the game late in the third period, tying Hockey Hall of Famer Phil Esposito (717) for sixth place on the NHL's all-time goals list in the process.
"I think tonight was an important game for us," says Ovechkin. "Obviously we're trying to collect as many of these points as we can. We know [the Sabres] have a tough situation, but we just have to collect the points and move forward. I think it was a good response by us. Obviously, Vitek played solid, we use our chances and move on."
The Caps broke the seal on the scoresheet late in the first period, jumping out to a 1-0 lead just a few ticks after the expiration of their first power play opportunity of the evening. Washington won a puck battle in Buffalo ice and Conor Sheary rolled the puck around to Justin Schultz at the right point. He sent it down to Evgeny Kuznetsov at the right half wall, and from there Kuznetsov slipped a stealth shot through Buffalo goalie Carter Hutton on the short side at 18:46 of the first.
Washington put a crooked number on the board in the second, scoring three times to break the game open.
T.J. Oshie's great individual effort led to the second Washington goal. Nick Jensen sent Oshie into Buffalo ice along the right-wing wall, and the Caps forward skirted both Buffalo defenders before cutting to the middle, shimmying his way around Eric Staal. Oshie shot from in tight and Hutton made the stop, but Nicklas Backstrom was on the doorstep to pot the rebound for a 2-0 Caps lead at 2:41.
Just over three minutes later, the Caps got their transition game revved up and added to their lead. As Buffalo tried to break out of its own end, Dmitry Orlov read the play and picked off the puck in neutral ice. He skated into Buffalo ice along the left-wing wall before dishing a lateral pass against the grain to Richard Panik. From the high slot, Panik cranked a one-timer home to make it 3-0 at 5:59 of the middle frame.
Late in the period, the Caps netted another transition tally. Daniel Sprong forced a turnover at the Washington line, and Jensen slid a backhand pass to send Sprong off on a breakaway. He beat Hutton with a bar-down wrist shot at 15:07.
Early in the third, the Caps' fourth line continued its recent hot spell when Garnet Hathaway tipped home a Schultz drive from the right point at 6:46.
Ovechkin's goal closed out the scoring at 16:21 of the third. He took a slick pass from Sheary and beat Hutton from the slot to pull even with the great Esposito, who scored his final goal with the New York Rangers just over four decades ago.
Monday's multi-goal victory enabled the Caps to manage their bench and minutes throughout the night as they look ahead to the second half of a back-to-back on home ice against the red-hot New York Islanders on Tuesday.
"It was definitely on our mind here as the game progressed here," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette, "on how we could manage the bench. We understand it's a big game tomorrow and we'll get home tonight, we'll let the guys rest in the morning and we'll be ready to go."
While Washington won its fifth straight game, Buffalo saw its winless streak extended to 11 games (0-9-2).
"The score obviously is extreme," says Sabres coach Ralph Krueger. "I don't feel the quit of anybody. It's for others to judge. What I feel is an engagement in the process, and a first period that went radically against us, due to mistakes on our part and certainly due to missed opportunities on the other end.
"We didn't execute the way we needed to against Washington to create offensive chances; we gave up six or seven shooting opportunities and they got the lead and the game ran away from us."
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March 13, 2021 at 03:00PM
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