WASHINGTON D.C., DC — Joel Eriksson Ek scored his career-best 20th and 21st goals of the season and added an assist, and the Minnesota Wild cruised to a 5-1 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday night.
Marcus Foligno built on one career-high with his 20th goal and set another with his 16th assist for the Wild, who have won nine of their last 10 games while earning a point in the other.
Tyson Jost and Nicolas Deslauriers also scored as second-place Minnesota extended its lead to five points over third-place St. Louis in the Central Division. Jordan Greenway had three assists and Cam Talbot made 25 saves to extend his point streak to nine games.
Garnet Hathaway scored midway through the third period for Washington to end a stretch of eight unanswered goals allowed, dating back to Monday's 6-1 loss to Carolina.
Vitek Vanecek stopped 14 shots for the Capitals, who are 11 points ahead of the New York Islanders for the second Eastern Conference wild-card playoff spot.
Eriksson Ek now has 12 points in his last 14 games to move past his previous career-best of 19 goals set a season ago. He recorded his first of the evening 36 seconds into the game when he dashed onto Greenway's layoff to create a break, then scored through Vanecek's pads.
Jost doubled the lead a minute later on another goal in transition.
Eriksson Ek made it 3-0 with just under seven minutes to play in the second when he used his skate to control a lose puck, then muscled a shot from in close past Vanecek. He assisted on Foligno's goal 30 seconds into the third to put the game out of reach at 4-0.
