Johan Larsson nets the lone goal for Buffalo that tied the game, 1-1.
By Harvey Valentine / NHL.com Correspondent
WASHINGTON — Braden Holtby made 36 saves, and Tom Wilson scored with seven minutes left in the third period to give the Washington Capitals a 2-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres at Capital One Arena on Saturday.
Wilson took a pass from Evgeny Kuznetsov from behind the net and scored his 10th of the season.
Chandler Stephenson scored a shorthanded goal in the second period for Washington (21-10-3), which killed a penalty in the final two minutes.
Johann Larsson scored, and Carter Hutton made 22 saves for Buffalo (20-11-5).
Larsson tied it 1-1 when he backhanded Tage Thompson’s deflected shot at 9:01 of the third period.
Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin did not score for a second straight game; he needs one goal to join Mike Gartner as the only players in NHL history to begin a career with 14 straight 30-goal seasons.
Sabres forward Sam Reinhart had his NHL career-high 11-game point streak end. Linemates Jack Eichel and Jeff Skinner each had a 7-game point streak end.
Stephenson gave Washington a 1-0 lead at 2:50 of the second period. Nic Dowd lofted the puck over the defense, and Stephenson got to it first to score his third goal of the season.
The Capitals thought they had a 2-goal lead when Hutton covered Kuznetsov’s shot and the puck slid at across the goal-line, but the referee had blown the play dead.
Late in the period, Holtby skated toward the blue line, slid and swiped a loose puck to prevent a breakaway by Sabres defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen.