Eriksson Ek helps Wild defeat Capitals, gain in Central Division

WASHINGTON --Joel Eriksson Ek had two goals and an assist, and the Minnesota Wild extended their point streak to 10 games with a 5-1 win against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Sunday.

Marcus Foligno had a goal and an assist and Cam Talbot made 25 saves for the Wild (43-20-5), who are 9-0-1 during the streak and moved five points ahead of the St. Louis Blues for second place in the Central Division. Jordan Greenway had three assists.
The line of Eriksson Ek, Foligno and Greenway combined for eight points (three goals, five assists) for Minnesota, which won the second of a back to back after a 3-1 victory at the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.
"We like playing them against top lines clearly, and we get out here and we're just going to roll lines and get what we get, and it probably frees them up a little bit," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "It's nice for guys that do the dirty work, do the grinding, do the checking to get rewarded sometimes too."
Garnet Hathaway scored, and Vitek Vanecek allowed four goals on 18 shots for the Capitals (37-22-10), who have been outscored 11-2 in their past two games and have lost four of six. They trail the Boston Bruins by seven points for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
"I think turnovers, bad decisions with the puck, that kind of killed our momentum," Washington captain Alex Ovechkin said. "When we put the puck deep, forecheck, we all know what we have to do, just [tonight] for some reason we try to make a cute play, you know. I think we just have to forget this game."
Eriksson Ek gave the Wild a 1-0 lead 36 seconds into the game. Alex Goligoski held the puck behind their net, then passed up to Greenway beyond center ice. Eriksson Ek received Greenway's tap pass, got behind the defense and shot between Vanecek's pads.

Tyson Jost scored 1:01 later when he kept the puck on a 2-on-1 rush and scored with a wrist shot from the left face-off circle to make it 2-0 at 1:37.
"There might been only two chances we gave up, but they were mistakes, they were early on and not the way you want to start the game," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said.
Eriksson Ek extended the lead to 3-0 at 13:07 of the second period on a rebound of Greenway's shot, and Foligno scored 30 seconds into the third period when he took a pass from Greenway and scored on a wrist shot from the slot to make it 4-0.

Washington cut it to 4-1 on a delayed penalty at 10:28 when Ovechkin's shot from above the left circle deflected in off Hathaway's skate, but Nicolas Deslauriers scored an empty-net goal at 17:15 for the 5-1 final.
"Sticks were real good," Evason said. "We had sticks on pucks and when you play against a team like that, you need to dislodge some pucks. We were engaged physically certainly, but our sticks were there first and we got pucks out of dangerous areas and off of key players sticks."
NOTES: Minnesota finished 14-0-2 against the Metropolitan Division. … Eriksson Ek's and Jost's goals were the second-fastest two goals from the start of a game in Wild history; Kyle Brodziak and Andrew Brunette scored in the first 1:01 in a 4-3 win against the Colorado Avalanche on Feb. 3, 2011. … Ovechkin scored his 1,399th point (772 goals, 627 assists) to pass Jari Kurri for 21st on the NHL all-time scoring list. … Forward Johan Larsson made his Capitals debut and was plus-1 in 10:48 of ice time. He was acquired in a trade with the Arizona Coyotes on March 21. … Washington forward Nic Dowd played 11:44 and won nine of 13 faceoffs in his return after missing five games because of an upper-body injury.