WASHINGTON (AP) — Dylan Strome scored with 8 seconds left on the clock in overtime, lifting the Washington Capitals to a 4-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night for their fifth straight win.
Alex Alexeyev, T.J. Oshie and Tom Wilson also scored for Washington, which is 6-0-1 in its last seven games. Darcy Kuemper, making his first start since Nov. 8, stopped 24 shots.
“It just feels like we have this belief. Like, even on the bench, we know we’re going to tie it up. It’s a good feeling to have,” Strome said. “We’re playing well, we’re getting timely goals, everyone’s chipping in.”
J.J. Peterka, Zach Benson and Dylan Cozens scored for the Sabres, losers of four of five. Devon Levi finished with 26 saves.
“Obviously disappointed we didn’t get the two points, but I felt our guys played more of the style we want to play,” Buffalo coach Don Granato said.
Wilson tied the score with his fourth goal of the season with 1:15 left in regulation and Strome won in the final seconds of the extra period on a 2-on-1 break with his eighth.
“I thought it was a character win. I thought guys dug deep. … There were some shifts where guys had to do their job late in the game and get it done in overtime, and the structure and the detail, if we keep that throughout the whole game, it’ll generally give us a good chance,” Wilson said. “I thought we were kind of taking it to them for the second half of the game, and I think the right team won. We just kind of had to stick with it.”
Buffalo had gone up 2-0 early on thanks to Peterka and Benson, who scored his first NHL goal on a highlight-reel, between-the-legs play with just under 4 minutes left in the first period.
Alexeyev scoring his first NHL goal 57 seconds later to pull his team within one, and Oshie ended a 19-game goal-scoring drought at 7:50 of the second to tie it.
Cozens had a power-play goal to put the Sabre back ahead with 3:42 remaining in the middle period.
Washington finished 0 for 2 on the power play to fall to 0 for 23 over the last nine games.
UP NEXT
Sabres: Host Pittsburgh on Friday.
Capitals: Host Edmonton on Friday.
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