Neuvirth, Grinders Lead Caps to 4-2 Win

It is pretty rare that Matt Bradley and Jason Chimera combine for four points, while Alex Ovechkin is shut out. But that is exactly what happened tonight in the Washington Capitals' 4-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres.

The Caps started the scoring when Alex Semin found a cutting Nick Backstrom on the power play at 12:31. It was really the only time during nearly two minutes of five-on-three that the home team had a great shot. And then the grinders took over.

Chimera battled his way behind the net and passed the puck between his legs to Bradley, who partially whiffed on it but got enough of the puck to poke it past Ryan Miller at 17:04.

Early in the second, Bradley raced down to negate icing and found Chimera behind the net. The winger made a beautiful feed for David Steckel, who scored his third of the season at 2:45 to give the Caps a 3-0 lead.

"Chimmer got in there and made some great plays and Brads and I just kind of mucked it up and we were in the right spots," Steckel said. "If you do the right stuff and you are working hard, it's easy to play together."

But then things got dangerous on the Buffalo power play. The Sabres' visceral Tomas Vanek drew most of the Caps towards him, and found a wide open Derek Roy, who broke through Michal Neuvirth for the visitors' first goal.

Not 48 seconds later, Jordan Leopold got lost amidst traffic in front and beat Neuvy after another defensive breakdown.

From there, though, Neuvirth and the grinders took over befor Semin scored an empty netter with 3.2 seconds remaining.

"During the second intermission, Bruce [Boudreau] talked about it," Bradley said. "This is playoff-style hockey, when you are up a goal or down a goal going into the third. I thought we locked it down pretty good in the third."

The Caps may be loaded with stars, but it's become obvious that their blue-collar workers and goaltenders will be the key whether they're truly ready when the postseason arrives.