Sabres score late, often

BUFFALO, N.Y. — For nearly 35 minutes last night Brent Johnson carried the Washington Capitals, making it look like the team’s goaltender might steal a game for the second time in less than a week.

A furious offensive flurry by the Buffalo Sabres at the end of the second period squelched that hope.

The Sabres scored four times in a 4:33 span, sending the Caps to their second loss in as many nights 7-3 in front of 18,690 at HSBC Arena.

“After they started coming at us hard in the second period, it was almost unbearable for a little bit,” Johnson said. “It felt like the ice was tilted the other way.”

Johnson was spectacular at times in the first 35 minutes, stopping the first 30 shots he faced. But Buffalo defenseman Jaroslav Spacek beat him with a one-timer from Brian Campbell on the power play 14:51 into the period to tie the game 1-1.

It didn’t stay tied for long. Thomas Vanek tried a stuff attempt from the right of Johnson, but he lost control of the puck. It went right to Maxim Afinogenov on the other side of the crease, and he buried it into an open net 11 seconds after Spacek’s tally.

A little more than two minutes later the puck bounced over defenseman Brian Pothier’s stick on the blue line at the offensive end, and it led to a 2-on-1 for the Sabres. Jochen Hecht fed Jason Pominville with a hard, tape-to-tape pass and he directed past Johnson for a two-goal advantage.

None of those goals could really be deemed Johnson’s fault, but the fourth one was. Adam Mair had trouble controlling a bouncing puck to the right of Johnson, so he directed it toward the net, and it squirted past the Caps netminder under his right armpit.

The final damage was four goals in seven shots — pretty similar to the six goals in 10:06 Johnson yielded at HSBC last season on Dec. 26.

“[Johnson] was the show, but you knew it couldn’t go on forever,” Caps coach Glen Hanlon said. “You can play well, but you can’t just totally win games single-handedly.”

It was the third straight game the Caps have been totally dominated in the shot column. The Islanders outshot the Caps 31-12 on Monday afternoon in Uniondale, N.Y., the Rangers outshot them 41-25 in Manhattan on Friday and the Sabres finished with a 53-26 advantage in Buffalo last night.

It was also the second straight night Washington yielded 37 shots in the first 40 minutes. In other words, it was not a nice six days in New York state for the Caps and their new focus on puck possession.

“The last two years the identity of the Washington Capitals is that we drive hard down the wing and we get pucks to the net,” Brooks Laich said. “We’ve added more skill but we’re still a hard-nose hockey team. We’re trying to make plays in the neutral zone through legs and through sticks. That’s not our style of game.”

Michael Nylander put the Caps in front 11:24 into the first period after a nifty give-and-go with fellow Swede Nicklas Backstrom.

Twice Washington cut the deficit to two goals in the third period, and both times Buffalo responded with a goal less than two minutes later. Mike Green came out of the penalty box, collected the puck and put it past Sabres goalie Ryan Miller, who got caught in between coming out to play it or wait for Green to come to him.

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