Capitals once again fall to Wild
The Washington Capitals can’t seem to beat the Minnesota Wild. Once again they fell to them by a final of 5-3 up north.
Matt Boldy scored twice in the first period. His first goal came 50 seconds in while his second came at 4:36. 2-0 was the score after one with the Caps leading in shots 12-11.
The Capitals got on the board when Rasmus Sandin fed Alex Ovechkin on the power play at 5:34. Ryan Reaves, who was in the press box during Game 5 of the 2018 Stanley Cup Finals, put the Wild up 3-1 at 10:14 with his fourth goal of the season. Tom Wilson has eight.
Brandon Duhaime made it 4-1 Wild at 3:46. Ovechkin got another PPG at 12:33 to put him at 39 goals on the season and 819 of his career. And 75 from tying Wayne Gretzky. It was assisted by Tom Wilson and Dylan Strome.
Boldy would end up being the star of the day as he completed his hat trick at 13:58. Dylan Strome made it a two goal game at 16:26 with his 17th of the season. Wilson and Ovechkin had the helpers.
The Wild outshot the Caps 17-10 in the second period while the Caps outshot the Wild 14-12 in the third. The Wild outshot the Caps 40-36 overall. With Darcy Kuemper day to day, Charlie Lindgren got the start in net and made 35 saves.
Loss wasn’t on him in any means. This was not only a team effort but a poor start where they looked like they were hungover from St. Patrick’s Day did him in.
Perhaps what’s worse than the Caps loss itself was losing Evgeny Kuznetsov after he took a hit early in the third period from Matt Dumba. The Caps said at practice this morning he’s day to day.
The Caps host the Columbus Blue Jackets tomorrow night in a special night for Ovechkin as we celebrate him reaching 802.