Kuemper makes 39 saves, Capitals edge Wild

WASHINGTON -- Darcy Kuemper made 39 saves and was perfect in a seven-round shootout in the Washington Capitals' 3-2 win against the Minnesota Wild at Capital One Arena on Friday.

John Carlson scored the only goal of the shootout.

Kuemper made an acrobatic save on Joel Eriksson Ek in the third round, lifting his pad to block the shot while sprawled on the ice.

“I don’t know if that’s a full-scorpion (save),” Kuemper said. “Maybe a half-scorpion. I didn’t quite get it up all the way, so …”

Marco Rossi scored at 3:46 of overtime, but the goal was immediately waived off due to goaltender interference by Marcus Foligno. Kuemper stopped Marcus Johansson on a breakaway as overtime expired.

Dylan Strome scored his fifth goal in the past four games for the Capitals (3-3-1), who have won two in a row for the first time this season. Tom Wilson scored his first goal of the season.

“I feel like as not great as we were playing at the beginning of the year, we’re still .500 and finding a way to climb back into it here,” Strome said. “Getting some great goaltending performances so we’ve got to take advantage of those, and I thought we did a great job tonight of sticking with it.”

Rossi and Ryan Hartman each scored for the Wild (3-3-2), who were playing the second of a back to back after a 5-2 loss at the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday. Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves.

“I think we responded well,” Hartman said. “We missed some opportunities to score goals and then had three or four opportunities in the shootout to close it out. Obviously, we wanted that win, especially with 'Flower' holding them off. I don’t know how many rounds it was, but he did what he had to do.”

Washington was 5-for-5 on its penalty kill, scoring a short-handed goal, and 1-for-3 on the power play.

“Special teams are such a huge part of everything. There are big moments in the game and we've kind of had to do a better job controlling those moments and tilting them our way,” Wilson said. “Tonight, we did that, and you get a win. It's a good recipe for success."

Hartman scored on a breakaway to tie the game 2-2 at 1:16 of the third period. He stole the puck from Capitals defenseman Martin Fehervary at the Wild blue line and beat Kuemper with a backhand.

Rossi gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 2:17 of the first period when he received a pass from Foligno on the rush and scored off the right post from edge of the left circle.

Wilson scored on the rush from the right circle off a feed from Connor McMichael for a short-handed goal at 9:49 to tie it 1-1.

Strome’s power-play goal gave the Capitals a 2-1 lead at 17:14. Alex Ovechkin received a cross-ice pass in the left circle from Evgeny Kuznetsov and, as Fleury moved toward him, Ovechkin slid the puck through the crease to Strome, who tucked it in from the right post.

Ovechkin appeared to increase the lead to 3-1 when he knocked in a rebound at 10:58 of the second period, but Minnesota challenged the goal and a video review determined the Capitals were offside entering the zone.

The Washington captain has played against Fleury 46 times and scored 27 goals, his most against any goalie. Fleury is 27-14-3 in 45 games (44 starts) against Washington.

“We’ve played against each other quite a few times and he’s scored a lot,” Fleury said. “Every time, I feel like I need to stop him, right? The other guys I want to stop, obviously. It was like old times. A tough battle until the end.”

NOTES: Ovechkin has two goals and four assists in a five-game point streak. … He has 37 points (19 goals, 18 assists) in 22 career games against Minnesota. … Johansson (assist) has one goal and five assists in a five-game point streak. … Wild defenseman Daemon Hunt played 4:12 and had a takeaway in his NHL debut. …