The Minnesota Wild will go for their third straight win when they host the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night in Saint Paul, Minn.
Minnesota, looking to make its way into the Western Conference playoff race, has won three of four as it opens a three-game homestand.
The Wild closed out a three-game road trip with a 5-2 win at Carolina on Sunday. Kirill Kaprizov scored a hat trick, Joel Eriksson Ek scored the go-ahead goal in the third period and had two assists and Filip Gustavsson made 40 saves in place of the injured Marc-Andre Fleury.
Kaprizov, who has five goals in his past two games, finished his hat trick with an empty-net goal soon after he blocked a shot with Carolina playing with an extra attacker and trailing by one goal.
“He’s a scoring guy, an offensive threat,” coach John Hynes said of Kaprizov. “But when you’re called upon to manage a puck or block a shot or defending in a certain situation, when you do that, that’s what the game requires and that was really good to see.”
The Wild have won two straight for the first time since a four-game run Dec. 19-27.
“It’s nice to see us respond and get four points out of six,” forward Marcus Foligno said of the road trip. “It’s positive going home, which is nice for us.”
Kaprizov (five goals, three assists), Eriksson Ek (four goals, four assists) and Brock Faber (one goal, five assists) each carry a four-game point streak into Tuesday’s game. Eriksson Ek’s next goal will give him his third straight season with 20 or more.
Goals remain hard to come by for the Capitals. They enter Tuesday averaging just 2.34 goals per game, 30th in the NHL. Solid goaltending, primarily by Charlie Lindgren, has allowed them to win numerous low-scoring games and remain in the playoff hunt.
On Saturday night, that wasn’t enough. After erupting for five goals to take the opener of a home-and-home with the St. Louis Blues on Thursday, the Capitals were shut out 3-0 at St. Louis in the first of a four-game road trip.
Lindgren made 26 saves for the Capitals, but Jordan Binnington stopped all 18 Washington shots.
“We just weren’t crisp at all, really, for any of the 60 minutes,” said Washington forward T.J. Oshie, whose hat trick keyed Thursday’s win. “We had one power play where we were working it around pretty good and had about three Grade-A’s, and you pop one of those, maybe it’s a little bit different.”
Saturday aside, Washington’s power play has been effective of late, but scoring at even strength remains problematic.
“We have to find ways to generate just simply a shot,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “I know that sounds pretty elementary, but that’s the point of our five-on-five scoring. We have to change it from trying to score to just try to register a shot. Try to get some activity towards the net because it’s a serious issue.”
The Capitals beat Minnesota the first meeting of the season 3-2 in a shootout on Oct. 27, when John Carlson scored the only goal in the seventh round.
–Field Level Media