Caps go down fighting, and their playoff hopes take a broadside

Wingers Max Pacioretty and Tom Wilson, who fought Thompson and Jordan Greenway, respectively, headed down the tunnel first after receiving five-minute fighting majors. Unsure of exactly how the officials were going to handle the inconsequential remaining moments on the clock, their teammates slowly followed, and then the horn finally sounded on Washington’s 4-2 loss to the Sabres.

It was evident, as the gloves flew off and all five skaters from both teams engaged in a scrum, that the Capitals’ frustrations had boiled over.

With the loss, paired with an overtime win for the Pittsburgh Penguins over the Detroit Red Wings, the Capitals slipped out of the second wild-card in the Eastern Conference. Tied with the Red Wings and the Philadelphia Flyers at 85 points, Washington has the tiebreaker over both teams and sits in ninth, one point behind the Penguins with three games left to play.

“Coming off a big win like we did against Detroit [with] four games left in the year, every game matters,” said goaltender Charlie Lindgren, who made 13 saves. “Definitely frustrating to come up short here. Obviously, three games left, and we’ve got to lay it all out there.”

The Capitals played a tight, well-controlled first period — perhaps the most cohesive and organized they have been the past several weeks. Their forecheck pressure was consistent and effective, they won nearly every puck battle, and they reloaded possession over and over again, preventing the Sabres from settling into any sort of flow.

Washington found itself trailing by a goal through 20 minutes nonetheless. The Capitals weren’t able to convert on the few chances they got through to Buffalo netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (22 saves), and though they limited Buffalo’s chances, the Sabres just needed a small opening for a tip by Zach Benson to get past Lindgren with a minute remaining in the frame.

“Especially early on, we did a really good job of executing exactly what we wanted to from a game plan standpoint,” Washington Coach Spencer Carbery said. “Then it becomes a little bit of a microcosm of our season. That’s what’s happened so many times.”

Driven by Buffalo, the pace picked up to begin the second period. Though the Sabres were eliminated from playoff contention with a loss in Dallas on Tuesday, in their final home game of the season they were not content to let the still-hopeful Capitals take over. It didn’t quite rise to the level of the game in Buffalo on April 2, when Washington’s lack of speed was exposed by the Sabres’ skating ability, but there was a clear additional gear that Buffalo had clicked into — and the Capitals couldn’t match.

Alex Tuch extended Buffalo’s lead with a tally off the rush at 12:37 of the middle period, prompting Carbery to swap Washington’s forward lines in search of a spark. Washington began the game with Connor McMichael centering Alex Ovechkin and Oshie; after Tuch’s goal, Pacioretty swapped places with Ovechkin, who then skated with Hendrix Lapierre and Sonny Milano.

Just under two minutes later, on their first shift as a combination, Pacioretty feathered a backhand pass across the offensive zone to McMichael, who was crashing toward the net with speed. Pacioretty’s feed landed on McMichael’s stick on the edge of the crease for a tap-in finish that gave Washington a much-needed jolt.

But McMichael’s goal would be the last meaningful one the Capitals scored. Despite showing more life down the stretch of the second period, it wasn’t enough to create a sequence that bested Luukkonen, and the futile nature of Washington’s offense extended into the final frame.

“Overall, I thought we did some really good things,” Lindgren said. “It’s really frustrating to come up on the wrong side of it tonight.”

The Capitals had to kill a penalty on Wilson just 16 seconds into the third period, which they did with relative ease. They regained some of their forechecking momentum as the period went along, but returning to the formula that had brought a semblance of success earlier in the game didn’t do anything to change the outcome in the final minutes.

As has been a theme throughout the season, Washington’s lack of a finishing touch on the attack proved to be a significant limiting factor in a game the Capitals needed for their playoff hopes.

“I thought we were right there and we could’ve won the game,” Carbery said. “I just think we got down in the game and just weren’t able to make a play offensively to finish.”

Midway through the third period, Jack Quinn dragged the puck around defenseman Nick Jensen and found space at the top of the slot for a wrister that beat a screened Lindgren, all but sealing the loss for the Capitals.

Dylan Cozens hit the empty net with just over two minutes left, and while Wilson found the back of the net on a tip in front of Luukkonen with one minute left, it was far too late to alter Washington’s fate — both in the game and, potentially, for the season.

“The margin of error is so thin,” Lindgren said. “You can’t take any second for granted. Listen, it’s been a really fun year. It’s been a really good year. But to me, if we come up short, it doesn’t mean as much.”