Missed it by that much.
The Sabres played a hard and effective game against the Washington Capitals on Saturday night. Despite a solid 40-save performance from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, though, the blue and gold dropped Saturday night’s game 3-2 against the Caps after striking cold iron in the shootout.
Sabres head coach Don Granato opted to keep goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen between the pipes for both ends of the back-to-back scenario rather than go with Aaron Dell. UPL entered the game with a nice .926 save percentage in the two contests in which he played this season. Unfortunately for the Sabres’ young goaltender, the Capitals were able to beat him early as old friend Conor Sheary fed Lars Eller on a two-on-one to beat a helpless UPL who pulled a full split in a futile, yet admirable, effort.
Granato demonstrated a willingness to stick to his development ethos by sticking with UPL who had played the last two games. It would have been easy for the coach to throw Aaron Dell out there on the south end of a back-to-back rather than going with the young guy again. It was an especially notable decision with the always dangerous Alex Ovechkin entering the game with 20 goals on the season as he continues his push to be the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer.
It looked like there were a plethora of Capitals colors to cheer on Ovechkin in the sparsely populated crowd. Perhaps it was as much as a 50/50 split between Washington and Buffalo colors with the total attendance looking like the usual 8,000 or so patrons the Sabres have averaged this season.
Zemgus Girgensons had perhaps the best opportunity during the early part of the first period as he and Rasmus Dahlin had a 2-on-1 opportunity midway through the first period. Girgensons was unable to feed the puck across to the pinching Sabres defenseman and the scoring chance went for naught. Shortly thereafter, Dahlin found himself in a similar situation as a puck carrier with Victor Olofsson heading to the net. As it was before, though, the pass didn’t connect as the Sabres were on unable to cash.
The blue and gold finally broke through in the back half of the first 20 as Robert Hagg fed a streaking Vinnie Hinostroza who scored his fifth goal of the season on the breakaway. With 12 points in 26 games this season, Hinostroza is quietly putting up a solid campaign which could generate interest from other clubs come trade deadline time.
Dylan Cozens nearly scored to start the second period as he drove wide to the right side as he beat Vitek Vanacek cleanly before the puck caromed off the post and out of trouble. Cozens is often at his most dangerous as he drives that right side and takes the puck hard to the net. The Sabres subsequently took the lead shortly thereafter as Kyle Okposo fed a neat pass off the wall to a streaking Rasmus Asplund who then fed Will Butcher for a slot shot on a partial 3-on-1. Okposo’s pass there was a perfect veteran savvy move to keep things moving in the right direction and then Asplund made the right call to feed to Butcher rather than force a pass across to Cozens.
Granato’s recent defensive pairing switch that has seen Dahlin reunited with Henri Jokiharju seems to have rejuvenated Dahlin as the team now passes the quarter-mark of the season. Dahlin played a much more decisive game against the Capitals and made harder plays with the puck when he found himself in trouble in the defensive zone. That’s good to see as Dahlin most often gets himself into a jackpot when he tries to make cutesy, fancy plays rather than making hard plays that are more suited to the situation, even if they won’t show up on a highlight reel.
The Sabres were incredibly unfortunate with the lack of penalties called against the Capitals in the second period. Eakin had his legs taken out from him early on, and then Capitals got away with a pretty flagrant too-many-men situation later in the frame. The Capitals were awarded a powerplay later in the second that the Sabres were able to kill off in order to maintain their 2-1 lead which looked in doubt after Okposo took a 4-minute, double-minor high sticking penalty that gave the Capitals another chance.
Luukkonen was ready to meet that challenge though as he stoned the Capitals several times to keep the Sabres in front early in the third period. UPL made an absolutely spectacular diving glove save in the waning seconds of the power play to keep the home squad in front.
Controlled, timely goaltending is something the Sabres haven’t gotten a lot of with the departure of Craig Anderson and Dustin Tokarski. The Sabres couldn’t keep the Capitals off the board, though, as Martin Fehevary buried an opportunity set up by Ovechkin. That goal, along with the lack of penalties called against the Capitals to that point, severely turned the tied in favor of Washington’s group.
It certainly didn’t help that the Sabres were again denied a power play opportunity after Kyle Okposo was held up in the offensive zone. The referees once again decided not to call a penalty on the capitals despite the protestations of both the Sabres fans in attendance and the Sabres’ players on the bench. Usually in a tight game, the refs will even up the penalties even through weak calls. It was unbelievably strange that the Sabres couldn’t buy a penalty despite drawing numerous penalties that weren’t called while the Capitals were awarded a soft call on Zemgus Girgensons.
The shots were firmly in the favor of the Capitals to the tune of a 13-3 advantage with 6 minutes to play in the third period. UPL once again came up with an enormous toe save on a wraparound to keep things even at 2 although it looked unlikely that the Sabres would be able to capitalize of their chance to win the game.
The Sabres did indeed manage to get it into overtime, and they also managed to finally draw a penalty with 23 seconds left in overtime for their first man advantage of the game as Victor Olofsson drew a slashing penalty in the waning seconds. That penalty would be inconsequential, and the game moved to a shootout.
Both Thompson and Cozens beat Vinacek in the shootout, but the Sabres’ shooters couldn’t solve the goal post which foiled both of them. Olofsson did manage to squeak one by Vinacek but TJ Oshie finalized the result with the Capitals’ second goal of the shotout which granted them the win.
All-in-all it was a solid performance despite the result. The Sabres are next in action against the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday.