Wild Edges Caps, 2-1

When home gets to be a drag, sometimes the road can be just the remedy. Such was the case for the Minnesota Wild on Friday night at Capital One Arena. Desperate for standings points and coming off an underwhelming 1-3-1 homestand - the team's longest of the season - the Wild started a two-game road tour with a 2-1 win over Washington.

For the Caps, the loss followed a 5-4 overtime setback to the Lightning in an intense and emotional game here on Wednesday, Washington's first set of consecutive losses since before the All-Star break, Jan. 22-23.
"That was a very intense game [against Tampa], and it's three games in four days for us," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "But that's a game that they deserved to win more than us tonight. Our execution level and desperation wasn't as high as theirs was, and they were able to convert on a couple [sic] more of their chances than we did."
Coffee sales spiked during the first period, when the two teams combined for more icing calls (seven) than either team had shots on net (six each). The Wild grabbed a 1-0 lead late in the frame, jumping out in front on a strong individual effort from Jordan Greenway.
Greenway tamed a bouncing puck in neutral ice, gained the Washington zone, and carved his way to the net. He pulled Braden Holtby out of position and put the puck into the vacated cage, lifting the Wild to a 1-0 lead at 16:33.
The Caps had a pair of first-period power plays, but neither of them produced as much as a shot on net.

Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk made a couple of good saves on Washington winger Brett Connolly in the early minutes of the second, punching one of them aside with his blocker. When Connolly drew the Caps' third power play of the game, Dubnyk used that blocker to deny a John Carlson one-timer from the Ovechkin office, the only shot on net the Caps mustered in their six minutes with the extra man.
Rather than trading rush chances, the two teams seemed to trade strong offensive zone shifts in the second period. The Caps drew even on one such shift.
Nick Jensen took a pass from T.J. Oshie and let a drive fly to the net from the left point. Stationed in the left circle, Connolly got a piece of the Jensen shot as it flew past, deflecting it behind Dubnyk to make it a 1-1 game at 10:42.
Minnesota put on quite a push over the remainder of the second period, and the Caps were more fortunate than good on a couple of occasions when the puck stayed out of the Washington cage.
The Wild gave the Caps very little from the middle of the ice and Minnesota blocked as many shot attempts (22) as the Caps managed to get on net. Washington aided the Wild cause by missing the net 20 times as well, and some of those misses came on good looks at the net.
"I think they played a really good defensive game," says Caps winger Andre Burakovsky. "We talked about it in the period, that we need more pucks behind them and to outwork them down there. When we did, we got a lot of chances and a lot of zone time on them. I think that's something we have to do all game, and it's not something that we did today. I think we have to do it a little bit more."
Caps winger Carl Hagelin missed the game because of illness, so Burakovsky moved up to the third line with Lars Eller and Brett Connolly, the Caps' most effective line on this night. Both Burakovsky and Connolly were flying throughout the contest.
"We had a lot of good chances," says Burakovsky. "We just couldn't execute on them."

Early in the third, the Caps narrowly missed going ahead when Tom Wilson stepped out of the penalty box and right into a breakaway, only to have the puck roll harmlessly off his stick blade before he could pull the trigger.
In the back half of the third, the Wild finally managed to nudge ahead when Ryan Donato picked off Matt Niskanen's pass in neutral ice. Donato quickly dished to Zach Parise, who fed Luke Kunin in the center lane. From the slot, Kunin was able to fire and beat Holtby, giving Minnesota a 2-1 lead at 12:25 of the third.
"I think it was just good neutral zone," recounts Kunin. "[Donato] got it to Zach, Zach made a good pass and I had a little breakaway."
Dubnyk has had his struggles over the years against Washington, but he was at the top of his game on Friday, with only Connolly's deflection getting behind him. The win lifted the Wild back into eighth place in the Western Conference standings, and Dubnyk is now 13-4-2 in his last 19 starts on the road.
"It means - temporarily - we are in a playoff spot," says Wild coach Bruce Boudreau. "So that's what that means. We've got to do it again tomorrow."
Minnesota will conclude its quick two-game trip on Saturday night in Carolina while Washington returns to action on Sunday afternoon when it hosts Philadelphia.