Item 1 of 24 Mar 30, 2025; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Capitals defenseman Jakob Chychrun (6) celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal against the Buffalo Sabres during the first period at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Amber Searls-Imagn Images
[1/24]Mar 30, 2025; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Capitals defenseman Jakob Chychrun (6) celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal against the Buffalo Sabres during the first period at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Amber Searls-Imagn Images Purchase Licensing Rights
March 30 – Alex Tuch had two goals and an assist for the Buffalo Sabres in an 8-5 win against the host Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Tage Thompson scored twice and Jack Quinn had a goal and two assists for the Sabres (31-36-6, 68 points), who are 6-3-0 in their past nine games. James Reimer made 24 saves.
Alex Ovechkin moved within five goals of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL goal-scoring record with a goal and had two assists for the Capitals (47-17-9, 103 points), who have lost three in a row. Logan Thompson made 15 saves.
Jakob Chychrun gave Washington a 1-0 lead at 10:06 of the first period when he fired a slap shot from the left circle that leaked through Reimer.
Thompson tied it 1-1 on the power play at 12:49, roofing a rebound from the side of the net over Logan Thompson.
McLeod flipped the puck over Thompson’s glove on a breakaway to put Buffalo ahead 2-1 at 2:14 of the second period.
Chychrun tied it 32 seconds later from the left face-off dot, beating Reimer with a snap shot high short side.
Tuch deflected Clifton’s blast from the blue line over Thompson’s glove to make it 3-2 for the Sabres at 5:17.
Sam Lafferty fooled Thompson with a backhand from the right hashmarks to push it to 4-2 at 11:52.
Aliaksei Protas cut it to 4-3 on a short-handed breakaway 37 seconds into the third period.
Thompson’s tally on the same power play made it 5-3 at 1:28, one-timing a cross-crease feed from Zucker from low in the left circle.
Quinn increased the lead to 6-3 at 5:52 when he stripped Chychrun of the puck high in the zone and took off on a breakaway, beating Thompson bar down.
Ovechkin was in front to narrow it to 6-4 with a deflection of Rasmus Sandin’s point shot at 9:11, his 890th career goal.
Pierre-Luc Dubois then deflected Ovechkin’s shot from the blue line on the power play to cut it to 6-5 at 14:03.
Tuch tipped Mattias Samuelsson’s shot over Thompson’s left shoulder to make it 7-5 at 15:34, and Peyton Krebs added an empty-net goal at 19:36 for the 8-5 final.
–Field Level Media
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