Logan Thompson made 37 saves for the Washington Capitals in a 6-2 win against the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.
Jakob Chychrun, Aliaksei Protas and Connor McMichael each had a goal and an assist for the Capitals (39-29-9, 87 points), who have won four of their past five games.
The Capitals moved to within one point of Ottawa, which currently holds the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Detroit, Philadelphia and Columbus also have 88 points. Washington also cut their deficit in the Metropolitan Division to two points of the New York Islanders, with the Flyers stuck between the Caps and Isles.
Rasmus Dahlin had a goal and an assist, and Beck Malenstyn scored for the Sabres (46-23-8, 100 points), who have lost consecutive games in regulation for the first time since dropping three straight from Dec. 3-8.
Alex Lyon allowed three goals on five shots before he was replaced by Colten Ellis (20 saves).
Washington took a 3-0 lead in just over two and a half minutes early in the first.
Chychrun opened the scoring at 3:15 when he snapped a rebound from the left circle past Lyon’s blocker.
Dylan Strome connected 20 seconds later to make it 2-0, redirecting a centering pass from Protas from in front.
That prompted Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff to call his timeout.
McMichael pushed it to 3-0 at 5:52, when a rebound off the end boards bounced to him and, with Lyon on the opposite side, he put into the open side.
That marked the end of Lyon’s night.
Dahlin got one back for the visitors at 6:30. Josh Norris dished a cross-ice feed to Dahlin streaking into the zone, and the Buffalo captain fired a snap shot from the slot blocker side to cut it to 3-1.
Malenstyn narrowed it to 3-2 when he collected a loose puck on the doorstep and snapped over a sprawled Thompson at 12:15.
Seconds after the Sabres had a chance to pull even on a 2-on-1, Protas converted from the right circle on a Capitals 2-on-1 the other way to make it 4-2 at 6:06 of the second period.
Ryan Leonard buried a snap shot from the top of the left circle to extend it to 5-2 at 6:26 of the third period.
Tom Wilson slipped a backhand by Ellis’ right pad on a short-handed rush to make it 6-2 at 8:55.
–Field Level Media
