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BUFFALO , N.Y. (AP) — Sabres as being soft on Saturday.Jeff Skinner remarkably returned a period after a hush fell through the crowd at the sight of Buffalo’s leading scorer attempting to crawl off the ice with an injury to his left leg. Sam Reinhart picked up the offensive slack by scoring three times.And Carter Hutton held the Washington Capitals to scoring just twice on 33 shots in leading the Sabres to a 5-2 victory.“I just like the urgency and the desperation in our game right now,” coach Phil Housley said. “It’s good to see that we could string another game of 60 minutes of just hard work.”Housley’s assessment was a reversal from eight days earlier, when he referred to his team as soft following a 6-2 loss to the New York Rangers.Coming off a 2-1 shootout loss at Tampa Bay on Thursday, the Sabres snapped a 0-3-1 skid in a game they opened with a 2-0 lead and never trailed.Buffalo responded with a goal each time the Capitals cut the lead to one and overcame the initial dread of losing Skinner to a major injury.“Yeah, obviously, you think the worst when he’s down there and he’s in a lot of pain like that,” captain Jack Eichel said. “But it was great to see him come back, and it’s great to see he’s all right.”Skinner was hurt five minutes into the second period when he tripped over Washington’s Carl Hagelin’s stick,which got caught between his legs. Skinner was unable to put weight on his left leg while being helped off the ice and taken to the locker room.The 36-goal-scorer then drew a loud cheer upon returning to the ice to start the third period.“Good training staff, I guess,” Skinner said. “I don’t know. It was a bit of a weird feeling at first. And then I obviously kind of tested it out and it settled down a bit. It was good to get back out there.”Eichel had two assists in picking up his 66th point — two more than the fourth-year player’s career high set last season. Rookie Rasmus Dahlin and Jason Pominville also scored.Alex Ovechkin scored his league-leading 44th goal for the Capitals, extending his goal streak to five games. Andre Burakovsky also scored for Washington, which squandered a chance to win three straight for the first time since Jan. 6-10.Coach Todd Reirden said the Capitals’ inconsistent performance against Buffalo reflected how the team performed in closing a six-game road trip with a 3-3 record.“We had a couple of games on this trip where we had everybody all in , and a real solid team effort,” Reirden said. “Tonight, I didn’t feel that was the case. It’s too difficult a league to win in if you don’t have everyone playing to their best abilities.”The team’s inconsistencies are reflected in goalie Braden Holtby’s numbers. After stopping 40 shots in a 3-2 win at Toronto on Thursday, he gave up four goals on 37 shots against Buffalo.Holtby hasn’t won back-to-back starts since Dec. 21 and 27, and he has gone 6-8-2 since.Holtby pinned the blame on the Capitals’ overall defensive breakdowns.“It’s on us to make sure we get everyone on the same page,” he said. “You don’t get that by getting mad at each other or anything like that. It comes from coming together.”The outcome was decided in the third period, and after Burakovsky cut Buffalo’s lead to 3-2 by tipping in Christian Djoos’ point shot 4:16 into the frame.Reinhart scored his second goal of the game 1:23 later by deflecting in Matt Hunwick’s shot from the blue line. And Reinhart capped his third career hat trick by scoring into an empty net in the final minute.NOTES: Sabres F Kyle Okposo told The Associated Press that he’s feeling good while recovering from his third concussion in less than three years. Okposo has begun skating on his own and spoke while watching the game form the press box, eight days after being felled by a punch to the face during a fight with New York Rangers defenseman Tony DeAngelo. … Sabres C Casey Mittelstadt did not play due to illness. … Hagelin made his debut with the Capitals, two days after the eighth-year player was acquired in a trade with the Los Angeles Kings. … Capitals D Nick Jensen did not play a day after being acquired in a trade with Detroit. Reirden wanted to ease Jensen in and expects him to play against the New York Rangers on Sunday.UP NEXTCapitals: Host Rangers on Sunday.Sabres: At Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday. GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — With a hot goaltender and a nice run of winning, the Arizona Coyotes have tightened the race for a wild-card playoff spot in the Western Conference.Darcy Kuemper’s play in net made a big difference again, as he made 30 saves to shut out the Western Conference-leading Calgary Flames in a 2-0 Coyotes victory Thursday night.Clayton Keller and Jakob Chychrun scored for the Coyotes, who sent the suddenly struggling Flames to their fourth straight defeat.Kuemper improved to 16-4-3 in goal since Jan. 1 and logged his third shutout of the season. Arizona has won seven of eight and kept pace with wild-card leaders Dallas and Minnesota. The Coyotes are three points out of the second wild-card spot in the West.Kuemper had to face an extra attacker for the final 4:35 of the game after Calgary pulled goalie Mike Smith.“They needed to …I guess with the timeout they thought they could draw something up and maybe catch us by surprise ,” Kuemper said. “But the guys did a great job defending.”The Flames were shut out for the first time since losing 2-0 at Dallas on Dec. 18, and were held scoreless for the fourth time this season. Calgary had won the previous three meetings with Arizona by a combined score of 18-4.“They’ve kind of had our number,” Chychrun said. “We kind of owed them one.”Keller’s 13th goal of the season came at 10:16 of the first period, and gave the Coyotes a 1-0 lead. Christian Dvorak skated up the wing with the puck and timed a pass across the Calgary zone to Keller. The Flames defender had fallen trying to block the delivery, but the puck reached Keller for a wrist shot into the net.The Flames had a couple of quality chances miss just wide or over the net in the first.“We’re playing well in our own zone, we’re playing well defensively,” Flames coach Bill Peters said. “We’re having a hard time getting it to go and some of the execution could be a little bit better, but I think once we get one or two, I think it’ll start to come again.”After a scoreless second period, the Flames opened the third on a power play. Mark Giordano’s shot deflected off teammate Elias Lindholm in front of the net and pinged off a goalpost in the final seconds of the man advantage.Chychrun fired in a rebound that came out to him at 2:49 of the third period, after Dvorak tried to stuff the puck past Smith.The Flames challenged the goal for goaltender interference, but it was upheld.Smith, a former Coyotes goaltender , had 23 saves including one on Keller on a breakaway in the third period.“It’s hard to score, it’s hard to win this time of year,” Smith said. “There’s no sense of getting frustrated about it, we have to be better.”Vinnie Hinostroza missed a penalty shot with 7:26 to play that would have extended the Coyotes’ lead.“If we stick to our game plan, that’s the key,” Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. “I felt we had more guys invested in what we were trying to do.”NOTES: Coyotes F Michael Grabner played in his first game since Dec. 1, a span of 41 games he missed after taking a stick to his right eye. “It was a lot of fun. I’m sick of skating by myself out there, so it was nice to get back out there and play a meaningful game,” he said. … Coyotes F Josh Archibald was given a two-minute penalty for embellishment after he was taken down on a rush in the third period. … The Flames played their eighth back-to-back set of games this season after playing at Vegas on Wednesday. … Former Flames star Theo Fleury was named an inductee into the Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame on Thursday.UP NEXTCalgary: Hosts Vegas on Sunday.Arizona: Hosts Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.