Wild stay hot, shut out Capitals for 5th straight win

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Vladimir Tarasenko and Danila Yurov each had three points, and Filip Gustavsson stopped all 25 shots he faced for the Minnesota Wild in a 5-0 win against the Washington Capitals at Grand Casino Arena on Tuesday.

It was Gustavsson’s third shutout of the season and 14th in the NHL.

“Special teams, great out there today,” Gustavsson said. “Killed, even scored on the 'PK,' and power play scored. So, that’s a big part of winning. And the rest of it, we just dug in today. It wasn’t like we got super ahead early. We kind of got one in the first one, one in the second, and then, you know, it’s a tight game until late in the third.”

Tarasenko scored twice and had an assist, Yurov had a goal and two assists, and Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy also scored for the Wild (20-9-5), who extended their winning streak to five games and their home point streak to 13 (11-0-2).

Minnesota once again played with several key players missing from its lineup, including forwards Mats Zuccarello (upper body) and Marcus Johansson (lower body), and defensemen Jake Middleton (upper body) and Jonas Brodin (upper body).

“I think they’re earning their confidence, to be honest,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “It’s like we said, we’ve had some guys out, but I think that we’re playing a strong, collective team game, and everyone that’s in the lineup is contributing and playing hard, playing together. And I think when you do that you give yourself a good chance to win most nights.”

Charlie Lindgren made 27 saves for the Capitals (18-11-4), who have lost three straight (0-2-1) and four of their past five (1-2-2).

“I didn’t mind the start at all,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. “… I thought we did a lot of good things in the first period, so we’re right there, and then just not able to get that first goal, so you start to grip it a little bit, and just couldn’t find a way to get on the board. And then it sort of snowballs. Once it gets to two, OK, we’re still fine, we can still find a way, but when they get that third (goal) early in the third period, it was a backbreaker.”

Tarasenko put Minnesota ahead 1-0 at 2:09 of the first period with a wrist shot at the top of the slot.

“It's going well. I mean, it's nice when the puck goes in,” Tarasenko said.

Kaprizov extended the lead 2-0 at 12:51 of the second period, backhanding the rebound of Joel Eriksson Ek's shot past Lindgren from the slot for a power-play goal.

The Wild made it 3-0 at 4:23 of the third period. Yurov won a draw in the offensive zone back to Tarasenko, who quickly scored glove side with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle.

Yurov then made it 4-0 at 8:53. Tarasenko skated in on a solo rush, put the puck between his legs to get around Rasmus Sandin, and dropped the puck back into the low slot, where Yurov shot it into the open net.

“I told [Tarasenko] thank you. I would like that he (get a) hat trick, but next time,” Yurov said.

Boldy cut to the middle on a rush and scored with a wrist shot at 14:12 for the 5-0 final.

“Just couldn’t create any momentum,” Capitals forward Dylan Strome said. “… We get down early and just weren’t able to bounce back from that. We all got to be better. We left [Lindgren] out to dry in the third there, so got to be better.”

NOTES: The Wild earned their League-leading seventh shutout, their most in a single season since 2015-16 (eight). … Minnesota defenseman Daemon Hunt left in the first period after a collision with Capitals forward Ethen Frank inside the offensive blue line.