The Capitals never recovered from a sluggish start Sunday afternoon, falling 5-1 to the Minnesota Wild at Capital One Arena.
Minnesota scored twice in the first six minutes. Quinn Hughes opened the scoring at 3:42 of the first period, and Michael McCarron followed at 5:42 when a shot deflected in off Blake Coleman’s stick.
“I just didn’t think we were sharp at all to start the game,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said.
Justin Sourdif got Washington on the board in the closing seconds of the second period, deflecting a shot from the right point by Cole Hutson to cut the lead to 2-1.
The Caps could not find the equalizer, and the Wild put it away late. Maxim Shabanov scored on the power play at 17:37 of the third, Kirill Kaprizov added an empty net goal at 19:02, and Danila Yurov finished a 5-on-3 chance at 19:35.
Wild goaltender Jesper Wallstedt stopped 26 of 27 shots for his ninth win of the season.
Washington entered the day at 8-4-0 and fell to 8-5-0 with the regulation loss. The Capitals return home Tuesday, Nov. 3, against the Dallas Stars at 7 p.m. on Monumental Sports Network.
