Capitals fall to Wild 4-2

After a thrilling comeback the night before the Washington Capitals came out flat on home ice to the Minnesota Wild, falling 4-2. It was their fifth loss in the month of January. They had four losses all of December.

Martin Fehervary put the Caps up 1-0 at 18:57 of the first period. The goal was assisted by Alex Ovechkin and Trevor van Riemsdyk and it was his fourth of the year.

1-0 was the score after one with the Caps leading in shots 13-3. A good first period but a bad rest of the game.

In the second period the Wild tied it on a goal from Jared Spurgeon 50 seconds in. Dylan Strome gave the Caps the lead with his ninth goal of the season at 5:05 which was assisted by Fehervary and Ovechkin.

Jonas Brodin tied it again at 13:12 and Spurgeon scored his second of the night at 18:15 to give the Wild a 3-2 lead they would never look back on. They put it away in the third period with an empty net goal from Joel Eriksson Ek.

The Wild outshot the Caps 14-9 in the second period. The Caps outshot the Wild 14-5 in the third period and 36-22 overall. Charlie Lindgren got the start for the Capitals and he made 18 saves.

The Caps made a lot of changes to their lineup last night. They once again scratched Anthony Mantha. They also gave a top line promotion to Nicolas Aube Kubel. No we’re not kidding.

The Caps made these changes in the wake of news of the team being without Nic Dowd “for a bit”. The Caps not only outshot the Wild but they also owned a 9:28-4:49 advantage in offensive zone possession time.

Before the game the Caps recalled Aliaksei Protas from the Hershey Bears. He will go with the Caps on their upcoming three game road trip out west. The first stop is Thursday in Arizona.