BUFFALO St. Louis Blues Hats Authentic , N.Y. (AP) — Jack Eichel’s absence didn’t prevent Buffalo’s top line from carrying the load again.Jeff Skinner scored twice, including his team-leading 28th goal, and Sam Reinhart had a goal and an assist for the Sabres in a 4-3 win over the Florida Panthers on Thursday night.“It’s great to see that Skinner scores. At this point in the season, that’s the way it’s going to go to win a one-goal game,” Buffalo coach Phil Housley said. “We’ve lost some one-goal games in the past and it’s going to be tight. It’s going to be a great test for us.”Buffalo snapped an 0-2-1 skid while overcoming the loss of Eichel, who missed his first game since sustaining an upper-body injury in a 3-1 loss to the New York Islanders on Monday. Without disclosing the nature of the injury, Housley listed Eichel as day to day while also saying the captain will not play in Buffalo’s next game at Boston on Saturday.Eichel’s absence placed even more pressure on a team that’s spent much of this season relying on its top line, which entered the night having accounted for 49 of Buffalo’s 115 goals.Skinner and Reinhart delivered in a game the Sabres never trailed. They beat Florida for the first time since March 27, 2017, to snap an 0-6-1 skid against the Panthers.Buffalo also improved to 5-7-4 since its 10-game winning streak, which equaled a franchise record.“I don’t think we’re sort of a fragile group,” Skinner said, referring to the Sabres’ slump. “I think we did a good job of responding like that as a team.”Tage Thompson also scored for Buffalo Custom St. Louis Blues Jerseys , and Linus Ullmark stopped 35 shots to win his fourth consecutive start.Alexander Barkov had a goal and an assist for the Panthers, who lost for just the third time in nine games. Mike Hoffman and Frank Vatrano also scored.Roberto Luongo gave up two goals on the first four shots he faced and finished with 29 saves.A slow start cost the Panthers three days after they overcame a 3-0 first-period deficit in a 4-3 shootout win at Detroit.“The difference was they came out stronger than us in the first period,” Hoffman said. “It’s not easy to point a finger at exactly what it is. Obviously, we’ve got to take a little more responsibility in this room.”Skinner opened the scoring 4:42 into the game. And he sealed the win by putting Buffalo up 4-2 with 3:46 left, just less than three minutes after Hoffman scored a power-play goal.Skinner scored by collecting a loose puck in his own zone, driving up the left wing and snapping a shot that sneaked in under Luongo’s right arm.With Buffalo up 2-1, Reinhart also provided a lift for the Sabres by deflecting in Lawrence Pilut’s shot 1:20 into the third period.The game featured several shifts in momentum, with each team scoring disputed goals.Vatrano cut Buffalo’s lead to 2-1 by scoring on a 2-on-1 break in which he was allowed to break free out of his own zone only after Florida’s Keith Yandle knocked over Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin, who was two steps away from playing the puck.Housley said officials informed him they considered Yandle’s hit to be incidental contact.The Panthers were unhappy with Reinhart’s goal, arguing he deflected it in with a high stick.“I didn’t really know. You can’t see a lot on the monitors on the bench,” Florida coach Bob Boughner said. “We were relying on the league to review it, so I guess they obviously must have.”Buffalo had a goal disallowed 42 seconds later, when officials ruled Sabres forward Kyle Okposo interfered with Luongo before Marco Scandella snapped in a shot from inside the blue line.NOTES: Reinhart set a career best with his 31st assist of the season on Skinner’s first goal. … Evan Rodrigues took Eichel’s spot in centering Buffalo’s first line. … Florida D Chris Wideman was scratched after practicing with the team Wednesday for the first time since being acquired by the Panthers in a trade with Edmonton on Sunday.UP NEXTPanthers: Host Columbus on Saturday.Sabres: At Boston on Saturday. WASHINGTON (AP) — T.J. Oshie put in the work to help Alex Ovechkin set another record and get the defending Stanley Cup champions back on track.Oshie scored his 16th goal of the season as part of a dominant performance www.officiallightningprostore.com , Braden Holtby made 30 saves and stopped a penalty shot and the Washington Capitals beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 Tuesday night in Jay Beagle’s return to his old home arena.With an assist on Oshie’s goal, Ovechkin picked up his 1,180th career point to become the NHL’s all-time scoring leader among Russian players.The milestone wouldn’t have happened so soon without Oshie, who rebounded from an ill-timed penalty late in a loss to Boston on Sunday to be at his best against the Canucks. He hounded Chris Tanev to force the turnover that led to his goal, flipped the puck over defenders for a scoring chance in the first and created another one in the second.“Personally I’ve felt good here for the last couple weeks,” Oshie said. “Tonight was just kind of another one of those games the puck was kind of finding me. Would’ve liked to score more than one, but I had some fun out there.”Holtby made 13 saves and denied Bo Horvat on a penalty shot in a busy second period to help the struggling Capitals pick up two important points. Holtby was run over by Horvat prior to Elias Pettersson’s goal with 7.6 seconds remaining and was attended to by a team athletic trainer before finishing the game but said he was OK.Since the All-Star break, Holtby is 2-0-1 and has stopped 96 of the 101 shots he has faced.“Hockey goes in cycles sometimes, and I think we’re doing a good job in front of our net right now about making clear lanes to see, taking away different options, limiting the options,” Holtby said. “You just try and analyze every game to see what you can do better and move forward.”Ovechkin is ready to move forward after setting another record by passing former teammate Sergei Fedorov for the Russian scoring lead. He did it in 193 fewer games than Fedorov, who Ovechkin played with in 2008 and 2009 and considers a friend.“I talked to him and said it’s a huge honor Tampa Bay Lightning T-Shirts Authentic ,” Ovechkin said. “Obviously, we have a very good relationship and I’m pretty sure he’s pretty happy for me that I beat him.”Brett Connolly and Jakub Vrana scored third-period goals for the defending Stanley Cup champions, who had lost eight of their previous nine games. Vrana’s goal with 7:47 left had to be reviewed to make sure Evgeny Kuznetsov didn’t bat it in with a high stick.Markus Granlund also scored for the Canucks, who lost for the second consecutive night and have dropped three of four. Forced to start each side of this back-to-back because of an injury to rookie Thatcher Demko, Jacob Markstrom made 17 of his 28 saves in the first period to keep the Canucks in it.“Most of the game I thought we played good,” Markstrom said. “Same in Philly (Monday). Come February, come March and April we need points and we need them bad. It’s tough when there’s a lot of teams chasing you and our chasing a lot of teams.”The game was Beagle’s first time facing his former teammates after playing parts of 10 seasons with the Capitals and helping them win the Stanley Cup last year. Beagle, who signed a $12 million, four-year contract with Vancouver, got a standing ovation from the crowd during a video tribute in the first period and a hug from Ovechkin after it was over.“It’s something that I’ll remember forever,” Beagle said.NOTES: Canucks D Alexander Edler will miss at least a week with a concussion from a scary fall to the ice Monday in Philadelphia. Coach Travis Green said Edler needed stitches, but X-rays showed no facial fractures from hitting his head on the ice. … Junior G Mike DiPietro backed up Markstrom after Demko injured a knee Monday in warmups and went back to Vancouver for an MRI. … Capitals D Lars Eller returned to the lineup after missing a game with a lower-body injury.UP NEXTCanucks: Wrap up their four-game trip Thursday at the Chicago Blackhawks.Capitals: Continue their six-game homestand Thursday against the Colorado Avalanche.