Wild continue road prowess with 5-1 win against Capitals

Sarah McLellan, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Nov 1, 2026

Published in Hockey

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Life on the road sure suits the Minnesota Wild.

They started another trip with another win, running away from the Washingto Capitals 5-1 on Sunday afternoon at Capital One Arena in their NHL-high 11th road game.

Not only have the Wild won four in a row as the visitor, but their 6-3-2 record is second best in the league.

Kirill Kaprizov scored his NHL-leading 15th goal for his 500th career point into an empty net, but goalie Jesper Wallstedt was the Wild’s best player.

"Our team got bailed out by our goalie tonight I thought in the second period," Michael McCarron told reporters in Washington. "I thought they could have had three or four goals. I thought it was a lot tighter of a game than 5-1."

Wallstedt made 26 saves, including two against NHL all-time leading goal scorer Alex Ovechkin and a late breakaway stop on former Wild forward Alex Tuch to thwart Washington's rally.

"When you get those big saves," coach John Hynes said, "it allows your team to get back to what they need to be able to do to be able to win and hold serve in those moments."

The Wild (10-3-3) had two first-period goals 1:45 apart from Quinn Hughes and McCarron, but the Capitals improved dramatically after a sleepy start.

Their lone goal came on a deflection by Justin Sourdif with six seconds left in the second period.

After making 10 saves on 11 shots in the second period, Wallstedt was airtight in the third before finally getting some late run support: Max Shabanov capitalized on the power play before two last-minute goals from Kaprizov and Danila Yurov on a 5-on-3 power play.

"They had some pushes and surges at times in the game," Hynes said, "and they had some good looks. They're a big, strong team, too. They get in and around the net, and they got strong sticks, and [Wallstedt] came up with some big saves."

Kaprizov, who was named the NHL’s second star of October, reached 500 career points in 413 games, tying Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin as the fourth-fastest active player to hit the milestone.

The Wild’s trip concludes Tuesday at Philadelphia.

"Gritty, grimy game," McCarron said, "and we found a way to win on the road, which is always huge. They're not always going to be pretty, and we can take some lessons from this game obviously and move forward with it."

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