The Backcheck: Bolts fall to the Wild at home

The Tampa Bay Lightning became the first team in the NHL to take a regulation lead over the Minnesota Wild this season, but the latter left AMALIE Arena with a 4-2 win on Thursday.

The Wild used a power-play goal in the opening minutes of the third period to take the lead for good on a night the Lightning took four penalties to Minnesota’s one.

“The problem is we took four penalties again, and they took one,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “So now you’re just stressing the game out. .. Basically four power-plays, they might have had two scoring chances. That was it. We did a great job on the PK. In the end though we didn’t get it done, and that’s because we put stress on ourself by compounding things by taking penalties.”

The Lightning turned a 1-0 deficit after one period into a 2-1 lead with two consecutive goals. Brandon Hagel tied the game 1-1 at 8:55 of the second period, converting a shorthanded rush from the right hashmark after a setup from Anthony Cirelli.

Hagel’s goal was his sixth of the season and the second shorthanded goal in as many games for Tampa Bay.

Nikita Kucherov stayed on his goal-scoring heater to start the season for a 2-1 lead at 11:31 of the middle frame. Kucherov buried a give-and-go passing play with Nick Paul from the right faceoff circle, a goal that put the Wild behind on the scoreboard for the first time this season. Kucherov continues to pace the NHL with eight goals in seven games.

A goal by Joel Eriksson Ek tied Thursday’s game in the closing minutes of the second period when he was left unmanned in front of Tampa Bay’s net, and Matt Boldy put the Wild back in front with a power-play goal 54 seconds into the third period.

“Bottom line is in this game it’s two disciplined teams, two good hockey teams, and we had a one goal lead with two minutes left in the second period. We have a bad breakdown and we give them the freebie, take a penalty. They score a power-play goal and shut it down,” Cooper said. “That was it. The game was won in like four minutes.”

The Lightning outshot the Wild 25-18, including 12-5 in the opening period. Despite some late looks in the third period, including a JJ Moser shot that was blocked by Marcus Johansson, the visitors left with a win. Minnesota restricted the Lightning to five shots in the third period.

“I thought we pushed. I thought we worked. We had chances, Fleury made a bunch of saves there at the end to keep them up, but it’s gotta be a full 60 (minute) effort from us,” Cirelli said, “and tonight we didn’t have that.”

Teammate Conor Geekie also said penalties changed the tune of a game the Lightning said could have gone either way.

“I think penalties got us into some trouble. That’s kind of been a motto as of late and I think we just need to tighten that up,” the rookie said. “I think we played to our gameplan for 54 minutes, and those six minutes on the PK definitely drains us.”

Boldy scored the game-winning goal on the power play after a penalty was called 33 seconds into the third period. Kirill Kaprizov finished the game with an empty net goal after opening the scoring with the lone goal of the first period. Kaprizov finished with two goals and an assist to lead all players.

“There’s a reason they haven’t lost in regulation,” Cooper said of the Wild, who are now 5-0-2. “That’s a really good hockey team. I thought it was two good hockey teams. You probably wake up in the morning, analytics or numbers people are gonna sit there and say, ‘Maybe Tampa should’ve won that game.’ But the timing of things we did where we shot ourselves in our foot came back to burn us.”

Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 14 saves. The Bolts are now 4-3-0 this season as they get set to host the Washington Capitals (5-1-0 this year) on Saturday.

Benjamin's three stars:

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

2. Marc-Andre Fleury, MIN (23 saves on 25 shots)

3. Brandon Hagel (short-handed goal)