Pominville's short-handed tally was a backbreaker. (Getty Images)

WASHINGTON -- You don't want to put too much emphasis on one game out of 82 when there are still five left. But Tuesday night's game between the Buffalo Sabres and Washington Capitals was as big as a regular-season game gets.

Capitals coach Dale Hunter referred to games earlier this season as playoff games, back in February. So that meant that Tuesday was a Game 7. That's how the coach referred to it. It started like one too.

The Sabres came out of the chute guns a'blazing and pushed all period long in the opening stanza. The result was numerous chances and two goals, much to the excitement of the numerous Sabres fans in the Caps' barn.

The lead was eventually built to three before the Sabres hit a danger zone. They say the most dangerous lead in hockey is a three-goal lead. I personally hate that saying -- obviously a one-goal lead is the most dangerous -- but you were getting the sense the Caps were coming. They scored once and pushed the rest of the period. The Sabres were dropping like flies. At one point they were down to four defensemen and then Robyn Regehr was sent to the box for a hook. You figured it was the Capitals' chance to come back and grab the game by the horns.

Little did you expect it was the Sabres that would deal the death blow in the next minute.

Alex Ovechkin, who has been so hot for the Capitals lately, whiffed on the puck at the point and then, somewhat shockingly, was muscled off the puck by Jason Pominville in the neutral zone. Seconds later he fired it past Michal Neuvirth -- who replaced Braden Holtby earlier -- for the 4-1 lead. The wind was out of the Caps' sails.

"I know from playing defense on the power play that it's not an easy situation, you're not used to it," Pominville said. "It was a bouncing puck that got by him and I had my speed going and I was able to get on him. We were able to capitalize on it and put it away. I know how tough that is. It's happened to me."

"I should play [the puck] with my skate, not my stick, but it happens," Ovechkin said.

From then on the game wasn't really in doubt. A 3-1 game at the second with the momentum favoring the Caps became a 4-1 lead with the energy sucked right out of the arena. One more goal in the third and there you had it, a 5-1 beatdown of the Capitals.

It's obvious that tonight goes a long way in the Sabres reaching the postseason after a horrific stretch through the middle of the season. But I can tell you this; there is nobody who wants to see the Sabres on the other side of the ice come the first round of the playoffs. The team that was seen as a Stanley Cup contender before the season is finally showing that form.

"We're in the position we want to be in but we know the road is only going to get tougher," Drew Stafford, who scored two goals, said.

But remember, this game might have been big, but it's just another game.

"A win is a win," Stafford said. "We've just been trying to win games and we've been getting it done lately. We're not finished yet obviously, we're right where we want to be but it doesn't matter what the score is, we're looking for the two points."

They might be only two points, but they were some awfully impressive two points. Now they are in the driver's seat for a playoff spot.

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