Tonight the Sabres came home from their West Coast road trip, picking up a 4-3 win in a shootout against the Eastern Conference leading Capitals, in a game we played really well on both ends of the ice.
The Sabres opened the scoring tonight as JJ Peterka lit the lamp 4:42 into the game off a beautiful drop pass in traffic right in front from Alex Tuch. The goal was nice, but wow did that assist on it from Tuch impress me. The Caps answered back shortly after to tie up the game at 1-1, 6:10 into the first on a one timer rip from Tom Wilson on the power play on the rush. Pretty solid period for Buffalo, actually having some nice chances to score and hanging in there, playing pretty evenly with the Caps on both ends of the ice and putting on the pressure with a little bit of grit to them for a change. Let’s see if they can sustain it through the rest of this game.
Buffalo took the lead right back 1:07 into the second period with Alex Tuch getting a goal for his second point of the night, on the breakaway after forcing a turnover in four on four play. After a close call for the Sabres, Tom Wilson got his second goal of the game to knot it up again with 8:31 left in the second. Buffalo couldn’t clear the puck, and Wilson got right in front of UPL to score on the rebound. Tage Thompson made it 3-2 Buffalo on the power play with 7:11 left in the second, on his top of the circle ripped one timer on a shot that looked like the goals that the Great 8 on the other bench is known for scoring. Another solid period for the Sabres, still on top after 40 minutes.
The Sabres looked their worst of the game in the third period, with the Caps controlling play in the Sabres zone and generating a good amount of chances. Aliaksei Protas tipped one in past UPL to tied the game up once again for the Capitals at 3-3 with 4:13 left in regulation. And we’re going to ooooverrrtimmeeeee.
Overtime was awesome with a lot of chances for both teams, but with no goals, we go onto a shootout. A stupid practice drill to determine winners of professional hockey games (eye roll).
In the shootout, Tage goes first with his wrist shot saved by Charlie Lindgren. Pierre-Luc Dubois goes first for Washington and beats UPL on a pretty simple snipe of a shot. Jack Quinn goes next, with his backhand saved by Lindgren. UPL made the save on Dylan Strome, and to keep the game going Alex Tuch answered back, putting on the breaks and deking out Charlie Lindgren with a nasty goal to keep the Sabres in the game. John Carlson had the game on his stick to win it, but UPL made the save to put us to extra shooters. JJ Peterka ripped a wrist shot to put the Sabres up in the shootout and with a save by Luukkonen on Jakob Chychrun, Sabres win it.
FINAL: Sabres 4, Capitals 3 (SO)
Really solid game for the Sabres, who were the better team tonight and played really good, winning hockey for most of the night. Which almost makes all the losses, the 16 in our last 20 games especially more annoying since it shows that this team does have the ability to win, but plays like complete fucking garbage on most nights. Good win tonight though.
PS: I was way more pissed I lost my Caps bets than I’m happy my boys won. Usually I’m fine with that scenario, but not tonight. Damn it.
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