BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- Peter Bondra scored his second goal 9:37 into overtime to lift the Washington Capitals to a 4-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Bondra grabbed the puck near center ice and beat Dominik Hasek with a hard slap shot from the top of the left circle as the Capitals took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series. The shot bounced off Hasek's glove and into the net.
Richard Zednik scored two goals and had one assist for the Capitals, who have never been in the Stanley Cup Finals in their 24-year history. Bondra opened the scoring in the first period, and he also added an assist.
Donald Audette had one goal and an assist for the Sabres. Matthew Barnaby and Brian Holzinger had the other Buffalo goals. It marked the first time in the playoffs this season that the Sabres have trailed in a series.
The Sabres have been to the Cup finals once, losing to the Philadelphia Flyers in 1975. The only other time they were this close was 1980, when they lost to the New York Islanders in the conference finals.
Game 4 will be played Saturday night in Buffalo.
The Sabres were shaky early before scoring three straight goals to take a 3-2 lead in the second period before Zednik tied the game with his second power-play goal, setting up a scoreless third period and overtime.
Andrei Nikolishin, who assisted on three Washington goals, had the puck near the boards and sent a pass to the left circle to Zednik, whose one-timer blew past Hasek to the glove side.
Washington had three good scoring chances in the third period, but Hasek stopped Zednik on a breakaway and Bondra on a deflection before sending the game into overtime with a save on Nikolishin with 25 seconds left.
For a while, it was all Capitals. Then it was all Sabres.
Buffalo put itself in a 2-0 hole before putting immense pressure on Washington and taking the lead when Holzinger jumped on a rebound with 8:48 left in the second.
Geoff Sanderson started the play when he swung around the net and attempted a wraparound against Kolzig. The puck bounced to Holzinger, who batted it into the top corner.
Barnaby tied the game 2-2 when he took Michal Grosek's pass from behind the net and redirected between Kolzig's legs 2:08 into the second period. Barnaby, who had just five goals in 72 games during the regular season, has seven in 12 playoff games.
The Sabres began their comeback with just more than five minutes left in the first period when Audette jumped on a loose puck and beat Kolzig to the stick side from just inside the left circle.
The Capitals couldn't have asked for a better position while building the two-goal lead on their first four shots against the Sabres, who were playing their first home game in 18 days.
Bondra opened the scoring for Washington with his ninth goal in 15 career games against Hasek when he scored 4:57 into the game moments after Buffalo forward Vaclav Varada's turnover in the Sabres' zone.
Zednik's first goal made it 2-0 when he grabbed a loose puck and found a near-open net while the Capitals were on the power play. But Washington was held to just two shots over the next 19 minutes while the Sabres climbed back into the game.
