Wild’s Tarasenko scores twice in 5-0 win over Capitals – The Hockey Writers NHL News Latest news, analysis and more

The Minnesota Wild hosted the Washington Capitals on Tuesday, December 16 to wrap up their recent four-game homestand. They got another boost to their lineup when they got Marcus Foligno back from injury, but they were still without Jake Middleton, Marcus Johansson, Vinnie Hinostroza, Zach Bogosian, Jonas Brodin and Mats Zuccarello. Moreover, they also lost Daemon Hunt at the end of the game. The Capitals were without Ryan Leonard.

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Filip Gustavsson was in net for his second straight start, and Charlie Lindgren had a shot for the Capitals. The Wild started with the lead, and it grew throughout the game. They came outside with the 5-0 winand Gustavsson earned a shutout. This moved the Wild’s record to 20-9-5 and the Capitals to 18-11-4.

Summary of the game

The Wild got on the board in the first few minutes of the game when Vladimir Tarasenko scored his fourth of the season. Danila Yurov and Brock Faber assisted him. There were so many close calls for both sides, but none went through and the Wild took the lead in the second period.

In the middle period, the Wild increased their lead with a power-play goal from Kirill Kaprizov. To that end, he set two franchise records; he took over first place with most goals on the power play (70), and he moved into second place with 206 career goals surpassing Mikko Koivu. Joel Eriksson Ek and Quinn Hughes helped him make it 2-0. That was the only goal of the second period and the Wild took the lead in the third.

The Wild scored again in the final period with a goal from Tarasenko, his second of the evening. Yurov also scored the only assist for his second of the night to put the Wild up 3-0. Yurov scored a short time later and Tarasenko got the only assist to make it 4–0. Matt Boldy scored a shorthanded goal later in the period to make it 5-0. Matt Kiersted recorded the lone assist. That was the final goal of the game, and the Wild took the win with Gustavsson getting his third shutout of the season.

The Wild hit the road on Thursday night, December 18, for a quick one-game road trip to take on the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Capitals return home on Thursday to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs.