Wilson's shorthanded strike leads Caps over Sabres

*Photo from ESPN*

   Tom Wilson may be turning into more of a scorer than a fighter. Wilson scored his 6th goal of the season, 3 different Washington Capitals scored goals, and the Capitals topped the Buffalo Sabres with a 3-1 win on Thursday night. In total, 4 different players scored goals during the game.

   The Capitals started the scoring at the 17:23 mark of the first period, when Nick Backstrom scored a power play goal to make it a 1-0 lead. In the second, Wilson added a shorthanded tally to extend the lead to 2-0. In the 3rd, Connor Sheary added to the lead, making it 3-0, before Victor Olofsson finally got the Sabres on the board with a power play goal to make it 3-1 Capitals. 

   Wilson said of the Capitals win that "We didn't really give them much. Vitek made some big saves when he needed to. Besides that shorthanded clear, we didn't really give them much. We are feeling a little bit better about our game, so we've got to keep that rolling and just keep the momentum going."

   Vitek Vanecek started for the Capitals, and made 22 saves on 23 shots, the only hiccup being Olofsson's power play goal in the 3rd. Vanecek's record improved to 7-3-2 on the season, after taking over the top goalie position with Ilya Samsonov on the Covid-19 list. The Capitals themselves improved to 8-4-3, good for 3rd in the NHL's East Division. 

   Sabres coach Ralph Krueger talked about what went wrong, saying that "As soon as we didn't have the success we wanted to have, we started complicating things. We were making plays trying to make touchdowns instead of getting short yardage to kind of get down into their end the way we were doing it early on."

   Linus Ullmark got the start for the Sabres, saving 18 of 21 shots that came his way in the loss. Ullmark's record fell to 3-3-2 on the season, while Buffalo's record plunged to a measly 4-7-2, dead last in the East Division standings. 

   The Sabres travel to New Jersey to face the Devils on Saturday, where Ullmark is expected to start in net. The Capitals welcome the New York Rangers to town Saturday, where it is possible that Samsonov could come off the Covid-19 list and make the start for Washington.