The Washington Capitals completed a two-game sweep of the Buffalo Sabres on the pad of rookie goalie Vitek Vanecek with a 2-1 win. Vanecek stopped 30 of 31 shots in route to recording a win in his NHL debut.
The 25-year old was a second-round pick of the Capitals in 2014. He spent the past five seasons working through the minor leagues. This season he beat out 39-year old Craig Anderson to backup 23-year old Ilya Samsonov.
The youthful pair gives the Capitals the youngest duo of goaltenders in the NHL.
Vanecek got a victory shaving cream pie shoved into his face by teammate Tom Wilson.
Wilson scored the game-winning goal 7:47 into the third period. Jakub Vrana added his second goal of the young season in the second period to open the scoring.
Sabres’ defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen shot the lone puck that got past Vanecek, early in the second period.
The Capitals (2-0-0) will move on to play back-to-back games at the Pittsburgh Penguins, starting Sunday.
