A late goal from the NHL’s leading scorer led to a 5-3 loss for the Tampa Bay Lightning in Friday’s game against the Minnesota Wild.

The loss at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul ended the Lightning’s three-game winning streak despite an effort that saw momentum swing in favor of both teams in various parts of the competition.

Tampa Bay played a good game – the Lightning scored two power play goals and outshot the Wild 30-22 – but two goals from Kirill Kaprizov in the final six minutes of the game proved enough for the Wild .

The Lightning are now 7-4-0 and will visit the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday.

Coach Jon Cooper said there are no moral victories in the NHL, but he saw a lot of positives for his team against the Wild. Minnesota continues to sit atop the NHL standings and is now 7-1-2 on the year.

“I guess in hindsight, if you look at it, do I think we deserve a few points from this game? I do,” Cooper said. “I thought we deserved points from the first time we played them. They ended up having four, we had zero. You look at it and there were so many good things that happened on our end during the game, but timing is everything. (It’s a) 2-2 game with five minutes left and we give one away. It’s hard.”

A blistering start for the Lightning saw the visitors outscore Minnesota 12-2 in the opening minutes of the game, but neither bench scored a goal until the final seconds of the first period.

Tampa Bay forward Brayden Point opened the scoring on the power play, corralling a rebound past Minnesota goaltender Filip Gustavsson after a Victor Hedman point shot and pushing the puck past the sprawling goaltender with 45 seconds left. to play in the first period.

The home team quickly tied the score in the first period when Kaprizov drove through the offensive zone, crossing the left faceoff circle before feeding Joel Eriksson Ek for a one-timer from the right circle.

The Wild outscored Tampa Bay 16-15 over the final two periods despite the Lightning holding a 15-6 advantage after one period.

“It’s a tight control game, especially when you’re playing against the Wild,” Lightning forward Mitchell Chaffee said. “They make things difficult. They kind of make you win everything, and I thought tonight we had spurts where we played really well and other times where we kind of fell apart defensively, and it cost us.

Minnesota took its first lead of the game on a deep shot from defenseman Brock Faber at 2:41 of the third period, but the Lightning had an answer on the power play.

Forward Jake Guentzel scored his fifth goal in 11 games with the Lightning, tying the game at 6:23 of the third period. Guentzel tied the score at 2 by taking a pass from Hedman at the left faceoff circle, sending a shot under Gustavsson’s pad in his home state.

Nikita Kucherov had the second assist on the play for his team-leading 18th point of the season. Hedman led the Lightning with two assists.

The two teams traded chances in the opening minutes of the third period, but Kaprizov was the first player to break the tie when he found a bouncing puck near the net to regain Minnesota’s lead with 5:23 to play.

An empty-net goal by Matt Boldy made it 4-2 for Minnesota, and a goal by Nick Paul with 2:26 remaining cut the deficit to one again before Kaprizov capped a night of three points with a second goal in an empty net in the last minute. Kaprizov leads the NHL with 21 points in 10 games.

“We started well, but the second one wasn’t good enough, then the third one we came out too late. There are a lot of things to learn from this match, especially when it comes to closing out matches,” Paul said.

The Wild earned a season sweep of the Lightning after winning the first game by a score of 4-2 on October 24 at AMALIE Arena.

Heading into another tough Western Conference game in Winnipeg, the Lightning know they need a more complete 60-minute effort.

“I think we shot ourselves in the foot a few times, and in this league you can’t do that,” Chaffee said. “Every little goal counts, every little play counts. It was difficult today.

Cooper shared this sentiment.

“We had enough looks to score. In the end we conceded three,” said the coach, “and that was one too many.”

Benjamin’s three stars:

1. Kirill Kaprizov, MIN (2 goals, 1 assist)

2. Victor Hedman (2 assists)

3. Mats Zuccarello, MIN (2 assists)