Wild's second-period traffic jams in front of the net spark 4-2 win over Capitals

WASHINGTON — Jordan Greenway, Ryan Reaves and Brandon Duhaime didn't shoot the puck in the net or even make a pass to the player who did.

But without their presence on the ice, the Wild probably wouldn't have scored at all.

"They took my eyes away on those goals," Capitals goaltender Charlie Lindgren said.

All three players took turns setting up as screens in front of the Washington net, the catalyst for a 4-2 rally by the Wild on Tuesday in front of 18,573 at Capital One Arena that kicked off the team's four-game road trip with their third straight victory.

"There's good goalies in this league," Reaves said. "They see the puck, they're going to stop it. So our line especially made a point of that today, and it worked out."

Captain Jared Spurgeon had a pair of shots benefit from that traffic, including the final go-ahead goal, and Connor Dewar's two assists put an exclamation point on the boost provided by his line with Reaves and Duhaime.

"The goals aren't scoring chances unless somebody is standing in front of the goaltender, which our commitment was great in that area," Wild coach Dean Evason said.

At the other end, Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson was sharp, turning aside 34 pucks while improving to 10-2 over his past 12 starts with a 1.67 goals-against average and .940 save percentage in that span. He has given up two or fewer goals in 13 of 17 starts this season, a new career high, and Gustavsson made a clutch stop in the waning minutes when he clipped a piece of a Marcus Johansson try with his right skate blade for a scorpion-style save.

"You need to stop it somehow," Gustavsson said. "You just try and figure out how to move that part of your body and lift it a little bit."

Joel Eriksson Ek dumped his 15th goal of the season into an empty net with 54 seconds to go, but it was pressure around the blue paint that helped spark the Wild's other finishes.

After the Capitals' Martin Fehervary polished off a give-and-go with Alex Ovechkin 18:57 into the first period, the Wild turned the page on their sluggish start only 50 seconds into the second when Spurgeon walked into a Washington clearing attempt for a shot that sailed by Lakeville's Lindgren while Greenway (6 feet, 6 inches) was standing in front of the former St. Cloud State netminder.

"Once we got to moving our feet and holding onto pucks down there is when things turned for us," Spurgeon said, "and we had a lot of great screens, guys going to the net and creating havoc down there."

A Dylan Strome deflection at 5:05 reinstated the Capitals' lead, but again the Wild responded with a goal from their blue line.

This time, Jonas Brodin flung a puck by Lindgren at 13:12 after circling the zone while Reaves (6-2) stood in the shot's path. Brodin's goal was his first of the season and first since April 28, 2022, vs. the Flames.

"It's fun for me," Reaves said. "It's part of the game. It's hard to move me."

Then with 1:45 left in the second, Spurgeon wound up from the right point and capitalized as Duhaime (6-2) was just outside the crease; Reaves was nearby, too, and snagged an assist on the play. With seven multigoal games in his career, Spurgeon tied Matt Dumba for the most among Wild defensemen.

"It's really frustrating," Lindgren said. "For them to score three goals like that, that hurts. It doesn't feel good."

Washington attempted its own comeback in the third period and had two looks on the power play, but the Wild denied both chances to go 3-for-3 on the penalty kill; their power play went 0-for-2.

Gustavsson was especially locked in during the third period; he racked up 14 saves in that period, and the Wild ended up dishing out a season-high 33 hits.

But it was their posture around the Capitals net that really made life difficult for Washington.

"If you can't see the puck," Gustavsson said, "you can't save it."