Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Foligno each had a goal and an assist for the Wild (21-21-5), who have won three in a row and four of five. Filip Gustavsson made 30 saves.
“I really liked the mindset that we came home with coming off the road, and the style of game that we need to be able to play,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “And just the consistency of it was important for us to be able to get to that game tonight, and I thought we did a pretty good job of it.”
Anthony Mantha scored twice, and T.J. Oshie also scored for the Capitals (22-17-6), who have lost two straight. Darcy Kuemper made 25 saves.
“We certainly can help ourselves and try to start [with] or get the first goal,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. “We've talked about that all year. It's really important to us, [a] low-scoring team and a team that doesn't score a bunch 5-on-5, that puts us in a really difficult spot right out of the gate.”
Brock Faber gave the Wild a 1-0 lead at 1:37 of the first period on a backdoor rebound off a Mats Zuccarello shot.
Foligno extended it to 2-0 at 4:42, scoring into the open net off a Matt Boldy shot that was high and wide.
“I think everyone kept staking around and I was kind of alone, and I just thought, ‘I have time,’” Foligno said. “I don’t think ‘Kuemps’ really saw it. I think too much traffic in front of him, and he’s kind of looking at Boldy, like maybe it was up in the air or something. And I was able to drop it, and it did stick a little bit; it didn’t go in. I was able to whack in to get it in before it crossed the goal line.”