Alex Tuch had two goals and an assist for the Buffalo Sabres in an 8-5 win against the host Washington Capitals on Sunday afternoon.

Tage Thompson scored twice and Jack Quinn had a goal and two assists for the Sabres (31-36-6, 68 points), who are 6-3-0 in their past nine games. James Reimer made 24 saves.

Alex Ovechkin moved within five goals of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL goal-scoring record with a goal and two assists for the Capitals (47-17-9, 103 points), who have lost three in a row. Logan Thompson made 15 saves.

Jakob Chychrun gave Washington a 1-0 lead at 10:06 of the first period when he fired a slap shot from the left circle that leaked through Reimer.

Thompson tied it 1-1 on the power play at 12:49, roofing a rebound from the side of the net over Logan Thompson.

McLeod flipped the puck over Thompson’s glove on a breakaway to put Buffalo ahead 2-1 at 2:14 of the second period.

Chychrun tied it 32 seconds later from the left faceoff dot, beating Reimer with a snap shot high on the short side.

Tuch deflected Clifton’s blast from the blue line over Thompson’s glove to make it 3-2 for the Sabres at 5:17.

Sam Lafferty fooled Thompson with a backhand from the right hash mark to extend the lead to 4-2 at 11:52.

Aliaksei Protas cut it to 4-3 on a short-handed breakaway 37 seconds into the third period.

Thompson’s tally on the same power play made it 5-3 at 1:28, one-timing a cross-crease feed from Zucker from low in the left circle.

Quinn increased the lead to 6-3 at 5:52 when he stripped Chychrun of the puck high in the zone and took off on a breakaway, beating Thompson bar down.

Ovechkin was in front to narrow it to 6-4 with a deflection of Rasmus Sandin’s point shot at 9:11, his 890th career goal.

Pierre-Luc Dubois then deflected Ovechkin’s shot from the blue line on the power play to cut it to 6-5 at 14:03.

Tuch tipped Mattias Samuelsson’s shot over Thompson’s left shoulder to make it 7-5 at 15:34, and Peyton Krebs added an empty-net goal at 19:36 for the 8-5 final.

–Field Level Media