Wild battle back to force overtime vs. Capitals before losing in seven-round shootout

WASHINGTON – By itself, the performance was imperfect, the what-ifs forming a very clear picture of what might have been.

But propped up next to the abysmal meltdown the night before in Philadelphia, the Wild's effort in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Capitals on Friday at Capital One Arena was a step in the right direction.

"You want to win a game," Kirill Kaprizov said. "But we played better. Definitely can continue to play better and continue to improve."

Washington's John Carlson broke a seven-round stalemate in the shootout, the defenseman the lone player to capitalize after Marc-Andre Fleury turned aside six consecutive attempts following 31 saves through regulation and overtime.

But former Wild goalie Darcy Kuemper (39 stops) one-upped the future Hall of Famer by denying all seven Wild tries, one of which was a scorpion save vs. Joel Eriksson Ek.

"Miss Freddy Gaudreau," coach Dean Evason said of the Wild's shootout specialist sidelined by injury.

The Wild (3-3-2) extended the action after finally climbing out of a pesky one-goal hole just 76 seconds into the third period when Ryan Hartman (fifth goal) polished off a breakaway with a backhand; Hartman is tied with Eriksson Ek for the team lead in goals.

After surrendering the Capitals' second tally, the Wild's penalty kill also responded in the third, snuffing out a look for Washington as the team started to look very much like it was completing its second game in as many days.

But special teams play was still an issue, turning the Wild's early lead into a deficit.

Only 2:17 into the first period, a one-time pass from Marcus Foligno met Marco Rossi in stride, and Rossi converted on a breakaway with a blistering shot for his third goal.

"He just keeps getting better and better every game," Evason said of Rossi, who actually scored in overtime, but the goal was immediately overturned because of goalie interference by Foligno. "He's more confident. He's dictating to us that he's going to play more because of the way he's playing."

But at 9:49, Tom Wilson wired in a shot off the rush while the Capitals were on the penalty kill. Then with 2:46 to go, Alex Ovechkin fed Dylan Strome for an uncontested tap-in.

Just past the midway point of the second (10:58), Ovechkin pounced on a strange carom to put Washington up 3-1, but the Wild challenged the play to check if it was offside — their first coach's challenge of the season — and their instincts were right.

Ovechkin bobbled the puck at the blue line to precede it into the offensive zone; that returned Ovechkin to 824 career goals, 70 shy of Wayne Gretzky's record. Still, Ovechkin's 27 goals in 46 contests against Fleury are the most he's tallied vs. any goalie in his career.

"He's scored a lot," said Fleury, who at 545 career wins remains seven shy of passing Patrick Roy for second place all-time. "So, every time I feel I need to stop him. Well, I feel like I need to stop everybody, obviously. But, yeah, it was like old times, a tough battle."

Back to 2-1, the Wild could have tied the game on two straight power plays, but they whiffed on both looks and finished 0-for-5 to slip to a grim 4-for-30 this season; the Capitals were 1-for-3.

"The only negative is our special teams," Evason said. "If our power play could score and not give up one, could be the difference in the game."

Still, progress was accomplished, especially for the top line of Kaprizov, Hartman and Mats Zuccarello, which Evason called "really bad" and "awful" against the Flyers.

Kaprizov said the fourth and fifth goals were on him — "I made some mistakes" — and that he needs to improve. Although he's in a three-way tie for the most points on the Wild with nine, just two of those are goals, and he has none in the past four games.

"Not good," Kaprizov said. "You can see. Yeah, I need to get better, of course. I want to have more chances for the goals. Try play simple and smart, and I think we'll be fine."