WASHINGTON -- The Washington Capitals used a three-goal flurry in the second period to take a big lead, then needed a late goal by Mathieu Perreault to put away the Buffalo Sabres with a 5-3 win at the Verizon Center Sunday night.

Alex Ovechkin, Troy Brouwer, Jason Chimera and Marcus Johansson also scored for the Capitals, who improved to 12-15-1 and moved one point ahead of the Sabres in the Eastern Conference standings.

The Capitals are now six points behind the eighth-place Carolina Hurricanes and seven behind the Southeast Division-leading Winnipeg Jets, whom they face in back-to-back games later this week in Winnipeg.

The Sabres lost for the sixth time in seven games.

After losing for the fourth time in five games the day before in Boston, the Capitals didn't waste any time getting the home crowd on their side.

Center Nicklas Backstrom won a faceoff back to Alex Ovechkin who smoked a wrist shot past Ryan Miller for his 11th goal of the season just 19 seconds into the game. It was the fastest goal to start a game for the Capitals this season and gave Ovechkin the team lead in goals.

The Sabres answered just 12 seconds into the second period when Cody Hodgson threaded his 11th goal of the season through the legs of rookie defenseman Steve Oleksy and goaltender Braden Holtby.

That's when the Capitals turned their desperation into goal scoring.

With Steve Ott in the box for holding, Brouwer gave the Caps a 2-1 lead at the 5:06 mark with his 10th of the season and fifth on the power play.

Brouwer parked himself in the high slot and took a nice feed from Mike Ribeiro, who picked up his 20th assist of the season.