BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Washington Capitals continue to have the Buffalo Sabres' number.

Philipp Grubauer made 27 saves and four different players scored to lead the Capitals to a 4-1 win over the Sabres on Friday night. It was Washington's third win over the Sabres in the past two weeks.

"They're almost like little playoff series," Capitals head coach Barry Trotz said. "Every game, because we're in the same conference, they're four-point games ... those are important."

T.J. Oshie, Jakub Vrana, John Carlson and Marcus Johansson scored in a balanced effort by Washington (16-7-3). The Capitals contributed on both ends of the ice and came up big in the third period on the penalty kill.

Grubauer picked up his second win over the Sabres this year after making 32 saves in a 3-1 victory on Nov. 25. Washington also defeated Buffalo in a 3-2 overtime win on Monday.

"I'm seeing them back to back almost, not much time in between, which is really helpful," Grubauer said.

Grubauer's best moments came with Buffalo knocking on the door midway through the third period.

With 9:03 remaining, he stopped a shot from Sabres center Ryan O'Reilly that changed direction after a deflection. One minute later, he smothered the puck after young Sabres superstar Jack Eichel skated through the crease with speed.

"Special teams were outstanding, Gruby was outstanding and I thought we played more of a complete game," Trotz said.

Kyle Okposo scored the lone goal for the Sabres (10-11-6). Robin Lehner made 25 saves.

"We need a better effort finishing right now," Sabres forward Marcus Foligno said. "It seems like we were kind of winging (it) right now on the power play. You can't have that attitude. You've got to play five-on-five. Two power-play goals against hurts you."

The Sabres had no shortage of opportunities to pick up more goals.

Eichel missed a wide-open net from a hard angle with 3:34 remaining in the second period; his shot deflected wide of the net after hitting the back of Grubauer's left pad. Ristolainen had a shot go off the post three minutes into the second, and center Zemgus Girgensons hit the post with 5:18 remaining.

"It's lack of execution and puck management really is what it comes down to," Sabres defenseman Jake McCabe said. "When we turn over pucks and we try to go up and down with these teams that are skilled like Washington, that's not our brand of hockey. We grind teams down in our offensive zone. We're not a rush team."

Oshie opened the scoring 6:43 into the second period. After taking a backhand pass from center Jay Beagle, Oshie was in all alone in front of the Buffalo net. He lifted a hard wrist shot to the top of the net for his ninth goal of the year.

Vrana made it 2-0 six minutes later on his first career goal following an outstanding feed by center Evgeny Kuznetsov. Kuznetsov made his way around two Sabres down the right wing, deftly waiting to make his centering pass around diving defenseman Cody Franson. Vrana buried the pass with 7:21 remaining in the second.

After struggling on the power play for much of the third period, the Sabres finally got on the board with a power-play strike with 7:57 remaining. Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen's initial shot was stopped by Grubauer, but Okposo put home the rebound for his ninth goal of the year.

Washington regained its two-goal lead two minutes later with a critical power-play goal of its own. Carlson's blast for his first goal of the season gave the Capitals a 3-1 edge with 5:40 remaining.

"They had just scored, momentum, we were able to draw a penalty and that's where you can take the game right back," Trotz said. "You can just see once we scored that goal their bench sort of gets deflated again. That's owning a big moment for sure."

Johansson scored an empty-net goal with 1:12 remaining.

NOTES: D Zach Bogosian (knee sprain), D Taylor Fedun (shoulder) and C Derek Grant were scratched for the Sabres. Bogosian has now missed 18 games and has not played since Nov. 3. ... Earlier Friday, the Sabres activated D Dmitry Kulikov and F Nicolas Deslauriers from injured reserve. They also assigned D Brendan Guhle back to juniors (Prince George of the WHL). Guhle had been recalled on an emergency basis. The 19-year-old performed well in his limited time with the Sabres. ... D Matt Niskanen, RW Brett Connolly and D Aaron Ness were scratched for the Capitals. ... This was the third and final meeting between the teams this season.