Capitals come back but fail to hang onto lead against Sabres

The Washington Capitals came back but fell short to the Buffalo Sabres in an emotional night for both teams but especially the opposition.

The night before on Monday Night Football, Buffalo Bills safety Damir Hamlin collapsed on the field. He suffered a cardiac arrest and is in crucial condition. The game was stopped, the sports world was shocked.

For Buffalo this was a good win for them as they sported his number arriving to the arena. The Caps also held a moment of silence before the game.

Alex Tuch put the Sabres up at 10:48 and he was lucky there was no Braden Holtby to rob him. Sonny Milano tied it at 12:07 with a backhander assisted by Anthony Mantha and Matt Irwin. It was his sixth goal of the season.

Tage Thompson gave the Sabres the lead with a power play goal at 17:25. 2-1 was the score after one 11-8.

Thompson scored his second goal of the game at 5:50. Alex Ovechkin brought the Caps within one off a feed from Evgeny Kuznetsov at 16:46. 3-2 was the score after two with the Caps leading in shots 11-6.

Nic Dowd tied things up crashing the net 55 seconds into the third period with Milano and Nick Jensen setting him up. Ovechkin then gave the Caps the lead at 7:10 for his 28th of the season to put him at 808 on his career. He’s 86 away from Wayne Gretzky.

Tyson Jost tied it at 11:42. Thompson completed the hat trick in overtime three minutes in. The Caps led in shots 11-10 in the third, shots were even at two in overtime and the Caps outshot them overall 32-29.

Capitals Head Coach Peter Laviolette broke down the goal after the game:

“Tuch, he read it pretty good … and it ended up on Thompson’s stick six feet outside the crease. It is not a good look that you want to have.”

The Caps hit the road and take on the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night.