Alex Tuch showed no love for his former team, scoring twice—including the overtime game-winner—as the Washington Capitals defeated the Buffalo Sabres 4–3 on Saturday night at Capital One Arena.
The game started well for the Sabres. At 6:27, Jack Quinn continued his hot start, driving to the net and poking the puck past Capitals goaltender Charlie Lindgren to give Buffalo a 1–0 lead.
Josh Doan doubled the Sabres’ advantage at 10:36. Ryan McLeod stole the puck deep in the Washington zone and fed Doan, who rifled it home to make it 2–0.
Tuch got one back for the Capitals at 16:10, scoring his fifth of the season with a sneaky backhander that took an odd deflection off Tage Thompson’s stick and past Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
Washington took over in the second period, firing 15 shots at Luukkonen. Dylan Strome beat the Sabres netminder at 2:59 of the middle frame to tie the game 2–2.
Strome put the Capitals ahead with his second of the night at 17:24, slamming home a well-placed centering pass from Justin Sourdif.
Buffalo fought back in the third. Noah Östlund flung a shot from a bad angle that hit just about every Capital in front of the net before getting past Lindgren to tie the game 3–3 at 2:20.
The red lamp stayed dim for the rest of regulation, but Tuch made it shine 3:42 into overtime, ripping a shot past Luukkonen from between the circles for the 4–3 win.
Next up, the Sabres head west to take on the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night.
