WASHINGTON _ In a battle of the slumping conference leaders, TJ Luxmore and Jon McIsaac probably had to ice their orange-banded right arms Tuesday night.
The penalty-happy officials called a combined 12 minors, and the sad part is, if the Wild had a half-decent power play on this given night, they probably could have pulled out at least a point before a 4-2 loss to the Washington Capitals at the Verizon Center.
Eric Staal's power-play goal 4:37 into the third period pulled the Wild within one after the Wild spotted the Capitals a 3-0 lead, but the Wild failed on six other disheveled looking power plays, including one with a chance to tie right after Staal scored his 23rd goal.
But in a game where the Wild were victimized by bad line changes on two previous goals, one awful one by the third line led to Jay Beagle giving Washington a 4-2 lead with 5:41 left.
In the end, the Eastern Conference-leading Capitals snapped a four-game losing streak, while the Wild lost for a fifth time in seven games and was in danger of losing their spot above the Western Conference. One point behind Minnesota, the Chicago Blackhawks, 13-3 since Feb. 1, had a 2-0 lead over the Montreal Canadiens after two periods.
The Wild's 1-3 on a five-game trip that ends Thursday at Carolina.
After ruining a decent first period with a soft shift in the waning seconds, the Wild made the Capitals look every bit like the powerhouse they are in the second period.
The Wild got off to a solid start and had the better of the chances, but Braden Holtby, entering on a three-game losing streak, made a series of big saves to keep the game scoreless.
The Capitals picked up their play in the final five minutes of the first, and then one lousy shift resulted in St. Cloud's Nate Schmidt scoring his first career goal in five games against his hometown Wild.
After the Caps executed a stretch pass, Jonas Brodin didn't check Nicklas Backstrom and Jared Spurgeon didn't check T.J. Oshie in the final seconds. That freedom in the final seconds allowed Backstrom, an all-world passer, to tee up Schmidt. The former Gopher took a shot that deflected off Staal's leg and past Devan Dubnyk with 12 seconds left in the period.
Matt Dumba, who took a penalty 20 seconds into the game, added to that late-period Capitals momentum by taking a penalty 77 seconds into the second.
The Wild killed the penalty but then stopped generating anything. During one stretch between the first and second periods, Washington had 12 of the game's next 13 shots.
Staal was called for a soft penalty, but the Wild killed that one.
Then, after the Wild earned a power play, the Wild put forth a third poor one in a row and Mikael Granlund negated the advantage with a high-sticking minor.
One second after the power play expired, Alex Ovechkin, from his favorite spot _ the left circle, snapped a career-long 10-game goal drought with his first even-strength goal in 19 games.
Later in the period, Ryan Suter took a penalty, and after a poor line change by Mikko Koivu and Granlund, the Caps flew in the offensive zone and Evgeny Kuznetsov scored a beauty by Dubnyk.
The Wild pulled back within two 37 seconds into the third when Ovechkin lost a puck. Granlund sent a nifty centering feed from behind the net to Dumba, and the defenseman slid across the goalmouth and backhanded his first goal since Jan. 14 past Holtby.
The Wild then drew back-to-back power plays for a 49-second 5-on-3. Just after the front end of the two-man advantage expired, Koivu set up Staal's 23rd goal, which tied Granlund for the team lead. Staal has four goals in the past three games.
