Kaprizov Reaches 500 Points as Wild Pull Away From Capitals
Jesper Wallstedt stopped 26 shots and Kirill Kaprizov hit a franchise milestone in Minnesota's 5-1 win in Washington.
Kirill Kaprizov picked a tidy way to make history. His empty-net goal with 58 seconds left in Sunday's 5-1 win over the Washington Capitals was his 500th NHL point — making him only the second player in Minnesota Wild history to reach the mark, after Mikko Koivu, according to NHL.com.
The milestone came in 413 games, tying Evgeni Malkin for fourth-fastest among active players, behind only Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. The goal was also his NHL-leading 15th of the season.
Two goals in six minutes set the tone
Minnesota buried Washington early at Capital One Arena. Quinn Hughes opened the scoring at 3:42 of the first — becoming the third-fastest defenseman in Wild history to 10 franchise goals — and Michael McCarron made it 2-0 just over 90 seconds later. "It was overwhelming to start," Capitals coach Spencer Carbery admitted.
Washington clawed back late in the second when Justin Sourdif tipped home Cole Hutson's point shot, and the Capitals pushed hard for the equalizer in the third. The closest call: Hutson's shot deflected off Ovechkin's skate and sat loose in the crease before Jesper Wallstedt and his defense survived. Wallstedt finished with 26 saves, and Russian Machine Never Breaks wrote that he "stole this one".
Late power plays slam the door
With Washington pressing, discipline failed. Maxim Shabanov scored on the power play at 17:37 of the third, Kaprizov added the milestone empty-netter, and Danila Yurov finished a 5-on-3 with 25 seconds left — with rookie David Spacek picking up his first NHL point on the play. "If we start better then we don't put ourselves in that spot," Pierre-Luc Dubois said.
What it means
Minnesota improves to 10-3-3 and is 4-0-1 in its last five, with Kaprizov, Hughes and Joel Eriksson Ek all riding five-game point streaks. Washington falls to 8-5-0 as its three-game winning streak ends — a reminder that for all of the Capitals' solid start, the gap to the West's best shows up when the first ten minutes go wrong.