Alex Ovechkin had to settle for a single marker in regulation and the deciding strike in the skills competition Saturday.
He was looking for a third straight hat truck.
Ovechkin has 29 goals for the Washington Capitals as they defeated the Buffalo Sabres, 4-3.
“Yeah, I [had] pretty good chances today,” Ovechkin said. “It would be nice to get another hatty or whatever. But nothing you can do about it.”
The Caps had a 2-1 lead after the first period but the Sabres responded with two in the middle frame to end 40 minutes of play tied at 2-2.
Buffalo scored twice on the power play while the Caps went scoreless in three tries.
“That’s not a winning recipe for success, to give up three last night and then two and one at the end tonight,” Capitals head coach Todd Reirden said. “It’s an area that we’ve got to work on here while we’ve got some practice time this week before we play [the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday].”
Brett Connolly and Jakub Vrana also scored for the Caps in regulation.
“He’s (Ovechkin) a bull out there. It seems like he keeps getting better and better every year,” Connolly said. “Such a hungriness to score goals. He’s having a [heck] of a season and it doesn’t look like he’s going to slow down.”
Pheonix Copley made 26 saves.
The Caps improved to 20-9-3.
“I think what we’ve had to go through this year in finding different ways to win and different ways to improve, it’s been impressive through the first 30-plus games here. It’s been a real good start to the season for us,” Reirden said.
Jack Eichel struck for two goals and Rasmus Dahlin added a single marker in the loss.
“I think we won the special teams battle, but we just didn’t win the hockey game,” Sabres coach Phil Housley said. “I thought our rush coverage was a little off tonight. They have a terrific rush team, and they got a lot of chances off it.”
The Sabres dropped to 19-9-5.
[WATCH: All Sabres vs. Capitals highlights]
Carter Hutton made 35 saves in the loss.
“I think we still have a ton of room to grow, but I think that teams are now realizing they’re probably [going to] have to up their game and were not the old Buffalo Sabres. That’s for sure. We’re [going to] get teams’ best every night and we like that challenge,” Sabres’ Zach Bogosian said after the loss.
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