The Washington Capitals got crushed by the Minnesota Wild on Sunday night at Capital One Arena by a final of 5-1. The lone goal from the Capitals came from Garnet Hathaway in the third period.
Joel Eriksson Ek got things started 36 seconds in. Tyson Jost added another 61 seconds later to put the Caps in the early 2-0 hole. The Caps led in shots 10-6 in the first.
Eriksson Ek addd his second goal of the game at 13:07. 3-0 was the score after two with shots even at six in the second.
Marcus Foligno made it 4-0 30 seconds into the third period. Hathaway’s goal came on a deflection for his 11th of the season off a shot by Alex Ovechkin with Evgeny Kuznetsov providing the secondary assist at 10:28.
The Wild put a cap on it by scoring at 17:15 by Nicolas Deslauriers. The Caps led in shots 10-7 and 26-19 overall. Vitek Vanecek made 14 saves on 18 shots.
"“I think we just have to forget this game. Our last two games we didn’t play our best. We just have to move on. Next game is going to be big one.”"
Capitals Head Coach Peter Laviolette added:
"“You can say it, but you’ve got to do it, right? You’ve got to go out and you’ve got to play north, south and you’ve got to deliver that type of game. And so right now we’re not.”"
This was a game the Caps had zero excuse for an abysmal performance. The Wild didn’t even have Marc Andre Fleury starting. They also were coming off a back to back while the Caps had six days worth of rest in between game action. The fact they lost this type of a game with a month to go before the playoffs is alarming.
On Wednesday night the Caps will be back in action hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning.