LANDOVER -- The Washington Capitals spent the past four days working on their shooting.
Every morning they arrived at Piney Orchard Ice Rink in Odenton and spent an hour on slap shots and one-timers, working to hone in on the goal mouth.
But last night, the Caps again could not solve the mystery of goal scoring.
Buffalo goalie Dominik Hasek was his usual brilliant self in goal. Last year's Vezina Trophy winner stopped the Caps cold, 1-0, for his first shutout of the season.
Washington is now 1-4-1, with the Florida Panthers due here tomorrow. The Sabres, meanwhile, broke a three-game losing streak and improved their record to 4-2-1.
"My defense covered up the rebounds and I got the shots up high," said Hasek, who tied for the league lead in shutouts last season with seven. "Some of them I didn't see, some of them hit me in the shoulder. They had four or five good chances, but today I was able to save everything."
A crowd of 9,612 at USAir Arena witnessed the 33-save performance.
It was a hard-luck result for Caps goalie Rick Tabaracci, who allowed only a power-play goal to Dale Hawerchuk, when the penalty-killing unit got caught in a line change and the puck skipped off his arm into the goal.
In the third period, the Caps surged again and again at the Sabres' net, and Tabaracci kept his team within striking distance with a wonderful save on Alex Mogilny and another on Hawerchuk.
"We're doing an outstanding job defensively," said Tabaracci, who started for the first time this season. "Look around this room. This whole team deserves a lot better than what we've come up with in points so far. We've honestly played our hearts out and played some great hockey and just can't get the puck in."
The Caps were playing without their playmaker, Joe Juneau, who is sidelined with a hip flexor.
Washington coach Jim Schoenfeld said he felt "real bad" for his players. "Everyone in that [locker] room gave a maximum effort," Schoenfeld said. "We're doing so many things right, the pucks will eventually go in. I believe that. Against a team of highly skilled players, we held them to the minimum.
"What we need now is mental toughness. It's very easy to abandon our style of play, but our style of play is generating a lot of offense. Eventually, we're going to break through."
But not last night, not against Hasek. As Hawerchuk said: "Dominik was the best in the league all last year and he hasn't done anything to change anyone's mind this year."
The Caps' defense had likewise been flawless through 19 minutes of the second period when defenseman Jim Johnson had trouble clearing the puck as the Caps were about to change lines.
Johnson tried to recover, but Hawerchuk got off a blistering shot that hit Tabaracci's glove arm and rolled into the far corner of the net for what would prove to be the game-winner.
The Caps again won the shooting war, 33-15, for a six-game shot advantage of 197-124. They've been outscored, 15-8.
Washington came close to scoring with 14:40 to play, when a sustained rush nearly resulted in a goal by Dave Poulin. The veteran center's shot was shoulder high and was barely knocked away by Hasek at the last moment.
"We hit the post, we hit everything but the inside of the net," said Poulin. "We're going to win our share of these before it's all over."
Hasek was up and down and all over the crease as he gathered in Washington's shots.
Rookie Jason Allison came close to scoring at 3:38 and Rob Pearson and Calle Johansson tried to put back rebounds. Dale Hunter had a beautiful shot knocked away by Hasek's knee pad with 1:08 to play and, moments later, Hasek did the same to a shot by Dimitri Khristich.
"We're staying positive," said right wing Keith Jones. "We had a super effort by all four lines. We were all over Hasek in the third period, but he just played a super game."
NOTE: C Michael Pivonka was benched for the first time since 1988-89. "I could be doing some things better," he said. "I'd been concentrating on defense, but I will have to work at being more offensive."
Buffalo ..... 0 .. 1 .. 0 .. -- .. 1
Washington .. 0 .. 0 .. 0 .. -- .. 0
KRYGIER TRADED
LANDOVER -- The Washington Capitals traded left wing Todd Krygier to the Anaheim Mighty Ducks yesterday for a 1996 fourth-round draft pick.
"I have nothing but fond memories about being here and I'm just sorry it couldn't have worked out better," said Krygier, 29, a Capital since Oct. 3, 1991, who had not played this season.
"Todd asked to be traded," said Caps general manager David Poile. "From my standpoint, it would have been nice to keep Todd around until we'd finished shuffling our lines.
"But he's been a good player for us on the ice and off and I thought this would be good for him; give him a chance to get his career re-established."