PK kills Capitals: How Washington lost to Buffalo originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
Three power play goals for the Buffalo Sabres forced overtime and the Capitals would eventually fall 4-3 in a shootout on Sunday, their first loss in four games against Buffalo. Washington remains unbeaten in regulation and has now earned three points in two games since losing four players to the NHL's COVID-19 protocol-related absence list.
Here is how the Caps lost.
The penalty kill
That's it. That's the list.
This is the only reason the Caps lost. Sure, Buffalo tallied 48 shots on goal, but Washington did a great job boxing them out from in front of the net. The Sabres did not score a single goal at 5-on-5 and got all of its offense came on the power play.
Washington has been impressive on the penalty kill this season, but the PK was leaky on Sunday, allowing the Sabres three goals to both get back into the game and then take it over.
The second period was again an issue for Washington as it took three minor penalties and gave up two power play goals. Colin Miller fired a slap shot from the point to beat Vitek Vanecek and tie the game at 1. T.J. Oshie put the Caps back ahead, but Victor Olofsson tied it again as he was fed on the backdoor by Sam Reinhart. Zdeno Chara went down trying to block the pass, but went down a little too early allowing Reinhart to pull it around him and make the pass.
In the third period, Buffalo took its first lead of the game as Eric Staal cashed in on a Nic Dowd penalty with a one-timer from the faceoff circle.
Buffalo had scored only one power play goal on 10 power plays in the previous three games against Washington.
