Capitals survive Buffalo, snap skid

It was a scare but the Washington Capitals survived the Buffalo Sabres thanks to a shootout win.

Anthony Mantha got the Caps up 1-0 on a sweet backhander assisted by Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson at 9:15. It was Mantha’s 7th goal of the season. Jeff Skinner tied it at 15:49. 1-1 was the score after one with the Caps leading in shots 11-4.

At 4:06 in the second period the Caps took the lead on a snipe from Nick Jensen for his fifth of the season. Dmitry Orlov and Conor Sheary had the helpers.

Skinner scored his second of the game at 10:23 to tie it. Then the Sabres took the lead at 12:55 from Victor Olofsson.

Then at 16:47 off the face off draw Alex Ovechkin tied it with his 41st of the season. Evgeny Kuznetsov won the face off. The Caps led in shots 13-9 in the second and 9-5 in the third period. The third period was scoreless and the game would require overtime which would then turn to a shootout which the Caps led in shots 7-5 in the three on three and 40-23 in total.

In the shootout Tage Thompson got things started for the Sabres. Backstrom missed on the other end. Ilya Samsonov stopped Casey Mittelstadt. Then Kuznetsov tied it. Alex Tuch missed and then Ovechkin ended it.

Kuznetsov, credit to him. That was a good fake. He slowed down everything before firing in his shootout goal:

"“I’ve been hitting the post a lot lately so all I was thinkin was either ‘Please I’m gonna miss the net or go in, just don’t hit the post.’ Eventually I did hit the post and it went in.”"

When the Sabres took the lead in the second period, Capitals Head Coach Peter Laviolette called a timeout. Here’s what Kuznetsov said about the timeout:

"“He’s got that speech inside of him. sometimes you need help and you know, that is why he is the coach. he had the feeling that he had to say something and you know, it work out and thank you.”"

The Caps will look to keep it rolling tonight as they host the New Jersey Devils at Capital One Arena.