Penalties bury Capitals in lopsided loss to Wild

The Washington Capitals fell 5-1 to the Minnesota Wild on Sunday at Capital One Arena. The Wild scored twice inside six minutes and tacked on three more in the final three minutes of regulation. Jesper Wallstedt made 26 saves in the win. Logan Thompson, however, stopped 24 of 28 shots in the loss. Read more: Penalties bury Capitals in lopsided loss to Wild

Quinn Hughes opened the scoring at 3:42 of the first period with a snap shot that beat Thompson. Michael McCarron made it 2-0 at 5:27, converting after Bobby Brink's pass deflected off Blake Coleman and onto his stick. Washington spent the rest of the period chasing the deficit.

Justin Sourdif cut the deficit to 2-1 with six seconds left in the second period. He tipped a Cole Hutson shot past Wallstedt. The loss snapped Washington's three-game winning streak heading into the third.

Related: Capitals look for fourth straight win against Wild

Penalties open the door

Washington was still within one goal with under four minutes to play when the discipline broke down. Tom Wilson's high-sticking minor gave Minnesota a power play, and Maxim Shabanov scored on it at 17:37, making it 3-1.

Kirill Kaprizov buried an empty-net goal at 19:02 as Wilson picked up a cross-checking minor and a game misconduct. Timothy Liljegren's delay-of-game penalty at 19:19 stacked on top of Wilson's, handing Minnesota a 5-on-3, and Danila Yurov scored on it at 19:35. Three Minnesota goals in less than two minutes turned a one-goal Capitals-Wild game into a lopsided final.

Kaprizov's goal was also his 500th career NHL point. He's just the second player in Wild history to reach the mark, after Mikko Koivu.

"It was overwhelming to start," Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said of the opening six minutes. "If we start better then we don't put ourselves in that spot," forward Pierre-Luc Dubois said of the third-period penalties.

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Washington actually won the faceoff battle, going 29-for-51, a 56.9 percent clip, but it didn't matter. Meanwhile, the Capitals finished with 20 penalty minutes to Minnesota's two. The Wild cashed in with two power-play goals, plus the extra space from the third-period 5-on-3.

Washington outplayed Minnesota for a full period and still lost the Capitals-Wild matchup by four goals. That's a discipline problem, not a talent one. Washington hosts the Dallas Stars on Tuesday.