Sabres best Capitals, 4-3

A familiar path, including a lost third-period lead and multiple missed opportunities in overtime, led the Buffalo Sabres in an unfamiliar direction Monday at KeyBank Center as they earned a 4-3 shootout win over the Washington Capitals.

After flying home from a disappointing, 1-2-1 road trip out west, the Sabres put together one of their more complete efforts in recent weeks and, for the first time since Nov. 22, earned two points past regulation.

“I thought we played a really strong full 60 minutes, honestly,” said Sabres alternate captain Alex Tuch, who scored twice in regulation and once in the shootout. “Especially coming back from out west, it can be tough to get your legs.

“I thought everyone came in and worked really hard. I thought we played a really responsible game tonight. We weren’t turning pucks over and we were playing winning hockey.”

The Sabres took a 3-2 lead into the third and limited Washington’s offense for much of the frame.

But at 15:47, a couple unlucky bounces netted the game-tying goal for Capitals forward Aliaksei Protas. First, Connor Clifton blocked a centering pass from below the left circle that bounced right back on John Carlson’s stick. Then, Carlson’s second attempt hit Protas’ stick atop the crease, bounced off Owen Power and found the net.

That equalizer was the result of a lengthy defensive-zone shift for Buffalo.

“We’d actually done a really good job in our D-zone, but when you’ve got tired people, you’re not quick to cover, and it cost us the tying goal,” said Sabres coach Lindy Ruff.

The Sabres outshot Washington 5-3 during a back-and-forth overtime period. The best chance for either team came on a Jason Zucker breakaway, but Capitals goalie Charlie Lindgren made his biggest stop in a 24-save night to send it to a shootout.

A Pierre-Luc Dubois goal and two Sabres misses left Buffalo in a do-or-die round three. Enter Tuch, who got Lindgren to bite on a backhand fake before pulling to his forehand and scoring on an empty net.

JJ Peterka scored the eventual game winner on a wrister in the fourth round, and a third straight save by Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen secured the victory.

“Unbelievable goal by Tuchy to get us through the first three,” Ruff said. “And then our goaltender closed the door, and JJ, heck of a shot to win it for us.”

Tight games had rarely gone Buffalo’s way for the last month-plus, but on Monday, the Sabres felt they better resisted pressure from the Eastern Conference-leading Capitals.

“I think we’ve been in situations like that all season, so we’ve had a lot of experience to draw off,” said Sabres forward Tage Thompson. “I thought we did a good job responding all game just to all the little pushes they had. They’re a good team, so they had shifts where they were in our zone and got good looks, and I don’t think we let it affect us … went right back to playing our game and kept it simple and direct and got rewarded for it tonight.”

The Sabres endured their 13-game winless streak but have since gone 4-2-1, and at the halfway point of their season, they sit just six points out of a playoff spot.

“It should drive all of us to know you’re that close,” Ruff said. “When you go through what we went through, we should come out of this a better team. Everybody should come out as a better player and understand how hard it is to win games, and sometimes how easy it is to lose them.

“We’re fortunate that, the way everything has unfolded, we’re within striking distance with [41] games left.”