Capitals fall short to Wild

It was ugly from the get go, and even though the Washington Capitals only lost by two goals they dug themselves in too deep of a hole to actually come back.

Brock Faber struck first 97 seconds in. Marcus Foligno doubled that at 4:42. 2-0 was the score after one. Marcus Johansson made it 3-0 at 6:28 in the second. Anthony Mantha got the Caps on the board at the 10 minute mark in the second with his 13th goal of the season and it was assisted by Evgeny Kuznetsov and Martin Fehervary.

In the third, Joel Eriksson Ek, made it 4-1 a minue and 37 in. Johansson added his second goal of the night at 13:39. The Caps got closer in the final minutes at 17:03 from T.J. Oshie on the power play. John Carlson and Max Pacioretty with the assists there.

Mantha struck for his second of the night at 18:24. Beck Malenstyn and Nic Dowd had the assists there. Caps led in shots 9-8 in the first period. Wild led in shots 14-12 in the second. The Caps led in the third in shots 12-8 in the failed comeback outshooting the Wild 33-30 overall. Darcy Kuemper got the start, making 25 saves in the losing effort.

The Caps loss drops them to 22-17-6 with 50 points overall in the danger zone in the divsion of sixth place only two points ahead of the Penguins. It isn't all bad though as the Caps still aren't out of the race yet. Just three back of the Red Wings for the final playoff spot in the wild card.

Tonight the Caps are back in action. After Kuemper got the nod in goal last night expect the Caps to go with Charlie Lindgren against the Coloarado Avalanche. The game starts over here on the east coast at 8:30 p.m. on Monumental Sports Network 2.