Photo: Della Young/NoVa Caps
The Washington Capitals lost the Buffalo Sabres by a score of 4-3 in overtime in their first preseason game on Sunday afternoon at Capital One Arena. Goaltenders Zach Fucale, who made 15 saves on 17 shots in the first 30:04 of the outing, and Hunter Shepard, who finished with nine stops on 11 attempts in the final 31:11, appeared.
Capitals’ Lines vs. Sabres
Aliaksei Protas — Nic Dowd — Conor Sheary
Alexander Suzdalev — Connor McMichael — Anthony Mantha
Joe Snively — Hendrix Lapierre — Brett Leason
Haakon Hanelt — Ryan Hofer — Garrett Pilon
Dru Krebs — Nick Jensen
Martin Fehervary — Vincent Iorio
Erik Gustafsson — Martin Has
Fucale
Shepard
Healthy scratches: LW Beck Malenstyn, LHD Gabriel Carlsson
First Period
Scoring
1-0 Capitals, 4:05 (power play); Mantha blasted a one-timer from the right dot after Gustafsson fed him from up top.
ANTHONY MANTHONY with a snipe!!!
Caps on the board first. Washington up 1-0 pic.twitter.com/tVSpRluNlV
— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) September 25, 2022
Shots: 11-6 BUF
Notes: The Sabres would start the second period with 15 seconds left on the power play and the Capitals won 69% of the draws through 20 minutes.
Second Period
Scoring
1-1, 4:25 (power play): Center Dylan Cozens ripped one past the blocker from the right dot with Fucale screened to finish a triangular passing play for the Sabres.
2-1 Sabres, 9:16: Center Tyson Kozak ripped a wrister to the corner blocker-side on a three-on-one.
2-2, 9:42: Sheary waited and ripped a wrister at the doorstep after Protas fed him cross-ice on a two-on-one.
SHEARRRYYYYYY.
Did we mention how excited we are that hockey is back? Quick strike to tie it up. pic.twitter.com/d1nWgExqID
— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) September 25, 2022
Shots: 18-15 BUF (9-7 WSH in the period)
Notes: The Capitals won 62% of the draws through 40 minutes.
Third Period
Scoring
3-2 Capitals, 5:43: Iorio wristed a point shot after the puck went to him off of the boards on a pass by Leason and Snively deflected it past the glove.
Fehervary and Iorio make an excellent pair pic.twitter.com/YnagJrpAd0
— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) September 25, 2022
3-3, 18:55: Center Jack Quinn shoveled one on the back door after Jensen attempted to block a pass from left-wing Brett Murray in the line with the goalie pulled.
Shots: 27-27 (12-9 WSH in third)
Notes: The Capitals won 60% of the faceoffs.
Overtime
4-3 Sabres, 1:15: Right-wing Vinnie Hinostroza deflected defenseman Lawrence Pilut’s wrister pass over the glove of Shepard in front to win it. It was the only shot of overtime.
Next game: Wednesday at Philadelphia Flyers (7 PM, NBC Sports Washington locally, NHL Network nationally)
By Harrison Brown
Why is Marty making 9 hits in a preseason game?
He knows how long the season is, how tough it is. I guess he figures he can keep that going for 90 games. He led the team in hits last season.
Granted I was watching it on TV, but I was pretty disappointed in Gustafsson. He can run a power play, but his defensive play is pretty bad. In his worst plays, Hinostrozza beat him twice, once to draw a penalty that resulted in the game tying goal, and then in the OT on the deflection. On that D pair, Has was the much better defender.
As to the other D, Iorio and Fehervary were really good together… Krebs needs a bunch more development time. Jensen is still really good.
McMike, Snively, Protas and Pilon were the best of the young-ish forwards from what I could see. Snively should not be risked through waivers, and I’d love to see Pilon get a real shot at making the team, but most likely he will have to get it from another franchise.
Agree Gus was bad. And noticeably bad.
He had a very good first period, but cooled off. Had a bad penalty.
Protas on wing in 1st game I find interesting. I imagine he’ll be a center in another game, but can’t help to think they’d love to have his size in the corners.