Wild hold off Capitals for 3rd straight win

Marcus Johansson scored twice against his former team as the Minnesota Wild held on to beat the Washington Capitals 5-3 on Tuesday night in Saint Paul, Minn.

Johansson, who spent parts of nine seasons with the Capitals over two stints, notched his second two-goal game of the season.

Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Foligno each had a goal and an assist for the Wild, who have won three straight. Filip Gustavsson made 31 saves.

Anthony Mantha scored twice for the Capitals, who have lost two straight to start a four-game road trip. Darcy Kuemper made 25 saves.

Brock Faber gave the Wild a 1-0 lead at 1:37 of the first period. Mats Zuccarello's shot bounced off the back wall and in front of the net to Faber, who extended his point streak to five games (two goals, six assists), the longest streak by a rookie defenseman in Wild history.

Foligno made it 2-0 at 4:42. Stationed to the left of Kuemper, Foligno jumped to glove Matt Boldy's deflected shot, quickly dropped the puck and knocked it in.

Johansson upped the lead to 3-0 at 6:28 of the second period, scoring off the rush with a wrist shot from the left circle that deflected off Kuemper's glove and went in.

Mantha pulled the Capitals within 3-1 at 10:00, converting a pretty pass from Evgeny Kuznetsov, who skated into the slot from the right circle before feeding Mantha for the open shot.

Eriksson Ek pushed the lead to 4-1 at 1:37 of the third period when he entered the zone on a two-on-one rush with Boldy, kept the puck and scored on a wrist shot from the inner edge of the right circle.

Eriksson Ek reached the 20-goal mark for the third straight season.

Johansson scored on a snap shot from the right circle at the 13:39 mark to make it 5-1.

T.J. Oshie's power-play goal at 17:03 pulled Washington within 5-2, and Mantha knocked in a loose puck in front of the net at 18:24 to forge the final score.