Sabres 4, Capitals 2
The Buffalo Sabres once again brought out the worst in the Washington Capitals, scoring four first-period goals and easing to a 4-2 home victory on Monday night.
Jason Pominville and Brayden McNabb had first period power-play goals and Matt Ellis and Christian Ehrhoff also tallied in the opening 20 minutes as the Sabres snapped a three-game losing streak and beat up the Capitals for the second time in exactly a month.
On Nov. 26, Buffalo crushed Washington 5-1 to halt another three-game skid, a loss that cost Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau his job.
Sabres netminder Ryan Miller turned aside 20 shots to win for the first time in his last four starts.
Buffalo made Miller's job easy with its first four-goal period since October 2009, knocking out Capitals goaltender Michael Neuvirth by scoring three goals on six shots.
Pominville scored just 51 seconds into the game on the man advantage and Ellis added an unnasisted tally off a faceoff at the 3:10 mark.
After Ehrhoff chased Neuvirth to make it 3-0, McNabb beat Tomas Vokoun for his first career goal.
Matt Hendricks scored in the second period and Alex Ovechkin tallied on the power play in the third period for the Capitals, who fell to 5-6-1 under Dale Hunter.