Ovechkin, Helmer outduel Sabres, 3-2

The Capitals celebrate Boyd Gordon's goal early in the third period. (Getty Images)

Alex Ovechkin has scored so many highlight-reel goals through his first four seasons with the Capitals, not even YouTube can keep up with him.

Maybe his goal during Friday night’s 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres ranks among his very best. Maybe — as Ovechkin said afterwards — it simply belongs among the top 20.

It doesn’t really matter. There are just some nights when even his own coaches sense that Ovechkin has a jaw-dropper cued up. It happened again vs. Buffalo. Much to the dismay of NHL defensemen everywhere, there is almost certainly another coming soon.

Taking a nice shuffle pass from defenseman Bryan Helmer, Ovechkin flashed up ice, Buffalo defensemen Toni Lydman a step behind and Henrik Tallinder a step ahead. Ovechkin sped across the blueline into the offensive zone, slipped the puck around Tallinder at full speed, recovered it as he crossed in front of Sabres goalie Patrick Lalime and somehow fired a shot home as he was tripped to the ice by Tallinder.

Ovechkin eschewed his normal all-out goal celebration. The spectacular play said it all anyway. He simply skated off the ice with one arm raised. Moments later, chants of “MVP” rained down on last year’s Hart Trophy winner from the sell-out crowd at Verizon Center.

Ovechkin’s goal made it 3-1 at the 8 minute, 27 seconds mark of the third period. And that proved vital after a shot sailing wide knocked off leaping Buffalo forward Maxim Afinogenov’s skates and into the net with 1:49 to play. The Caps managed to survive the final seconds after the Sabres pulled Lalime for an extra attacker and earned their seventh victory in eight games.

“It was a pretty cool goal. It happens sometimes,” said Ovechkin, who tossed aside a Caps hat during his postgame interview and proudly donned the red hard hat awarded to the game’s hardest working player. “I just made some moves. Puck was probably neutral so I won the battle. I was tired and I just fell and I shoot. ... You always want to do some crazy things.”

The man who started the play had a pretty crazy night, too. Helmer, a 36-year old veteran, has spent his entire career bouncing between the NHL and the AHL. In Washington because of a defense corps decimated by injuries, Helmer had one of his best games as a pro, earning the No. 1 star.

“I thought it was a mistake, too,” Helmer joked. “It was nice, though. When you can contribute offensively it’s a nice night.”

Helmer assisted on Viktor Kozlov’s rocket of a goal from the right wing in the second period — the first goal for either team — and he displayed good positioning all night, time and again spoiling Buffalo chances by getting his stick in the way. And of course he started Ovechkin’s goal.

“I thought it was great. But remember, Bryan was a great player. Not saying he’s not now. But when he was younger he was as sought-after a player that there was with the [New Jersey] Devils organization,” said Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. “A lot of times what happens to players, as they get older, is NHL people give up on them because they think that they can’t play because they’re not a prospect any more. But he can still play.”

Entering this season, Helmer had played in 134 NHL games with Vancouver, St. Louis and Phoenix and has now played another eight so far with the Caps. It was just the second time in 142 NHL games that Helmer recorded a multi-point night and the first time he was named on of the game’s three stars.

It wasn’t quite last Saturday’s first-period domination in Philadelphia, where Washington blasted 25 shots on goal against the Flyers yet failed to score. But they were again the better team in the first period on Friday, outshooting the Sabres 15-8. But Buffalo had its chances, including a shorthanded breakaway by center Derek Roy. Caps goalie Jose Theodore stopped that attempt, but was lucky a golden follow-up chance on the rebound was shunted wide.

The Sabres actually suffered a worse blow just a few minutes before Kozlov’s second-period goal when forward Thomas Vanek took the full brunt of an Ovechkin shot off the leg. Vanek, second in the NHL with 24 goals entering the night, crawled off the ice and immediately went to the dressing room, an ominous sign for the Sabres.

More trouble loomed early in the third for Buffalo. After a pair of 4-on-3 and 5-on-4 power plays expired for the Caps, a Milan Jurcina point shot was redirected by Boyd Gordon for a 2-0 lead — fitting since Gordon set up the play with a clean faceoff win.

But if the Caps thought Vanek and the Sabers were done they were mistaken. Ovechkin was called for a slash at 4:52 and Vanek made them pay, hitting a wide open net left of Theodore after a cross-ice pass from teammate Drew Stafford to cut the lead to 2-1. Ovechkin pushed it to 3-1 before Afinogenov, a talented Russian, scored just his second goal of the season when a shot deflected off his skates as he jumped right of Theodore’s net at 18:11 of the third. But Buffalo generated limited chances with Lalime off the ice and the Caps — despite their litany of injuries - escaped with yet another win.

“The expectations never change. The guys we bring up [from Hershey] are vested with the club,” Boudreau said. “We had a lot of guys in [training camp] that could play in the NHL. But you’re only allowed to keep 23.”


Caps Notes

» Center Nicklas Backstrom had the primary assist on Viktor Kozlov’s second-period goal. Backstrom now has 28 assists on the season — more than halfway to his total of 55 as a rookie — and 24 assists in his last 24 games.

» The Caps notched their sixth sell-out crowd of the season at Verizon Center. They are averaging a franchise-record 17,861 fans per game through 16 home games so far. Washington is also an Eastern Conference-best 14-1-1 at home and has outscored opponents 59-31 at Verizon Center.

» Washington thought it generated a 2-0 lead late in the second period when Alex Ovechkin scored on a point shot just seconds into a power play. But the goal was immediately waved off by referee Paul Devorski, who whistled forward Brooks Laich for a goalie interference penalty.

“At first I didn’t think it was a good call. I thought the puck was by [Buffalo goalie Patrick Lalime],” Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said. “But we went in [during intermission] and watched it from every angle and I came out and told [referee] Wes McCauley that he made a good call.”

» Caps goalie Jose Theodore — shaky early in Tuesday’s win over the New York Rangers, when he was pulled in the first period before returning to the ice in the second — was solid against the Sabres, stopping 22 of 24 shots.

“The last two periods [against New York] were really critical,” Theodore said. “I did a lot of good things the last two periods and it was good to have the chance to get right back at it tonight.”

» The Caps placed forward Sergei Fedorov (ankle) on the Long-Term Injured Reserve list before the game. He is eligible to return on Jan. 9. Forward Chris Clark (forearm stress fracture) played for the first time since Nov. 24. The Caps were also without defensemen Tom Poti (groin), Mike Green (shoulder), Jeff Schultz (broken finger) and John Erskine (concussion). Forward Alex Semin (back) missed the game as well.