TAMPA, Fla. – For teams with no historical nor geographical rivalry, who only get together twice a season, the Minnesota Wild and Tampa Bay Lightning played Tuesday’s game like they’re hoping to see one another again in a few months — knowing full well, that would mean in the Stanley Cup Final.

Sixty minutes of scrums and scraps and shots were barely enough as the Lightning got a late goal from Erik Cernak on a fortunate bounce and held on for a 6-3 win at Benchmark International Arena.

With less than three minutes remaining in a tie game, a Tampa clearing attempt hit the end boards and then deflected off the skates of Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson, sitting loose in the crease just long enough for Cernak to swat it in for his second goal of the season.

The Wild power play clicked early, getting goals from Mats Zuccarello and Brock Faber and the visitors built 2-0 and 3-1 leads before the Lightning stormed back. Vladimir Tarasenko continued his recent hot streak with a second-period goal, and the Wild got 18 saves from Gustavsson, who had beaten Tampa Bay three weeks ago in St. Paul.

The Lightning added a pair of empty-net goals, one after Minnesota’s Quinn Hughes lost a skate edge and slipped, to seal the win.

With both Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek missing from the Wild lineup for the previous two games, the absence was most clearly felt on the power play, where Minnesota went a combined 0 for 5 with the man advantage in home games against Chicago and Dallas.

With the band back together in Tampa Bay, the Wild power-play unit needed less than three minutes to grab an early lead when Zuccarello’s close-range pass bound for Kaprizov’s stick instead hit the skate of a Lightning defender and deflected into the net.

They also sent an early message without gloves on when Minnesota big man Michael McCarron ended a scrum behind the Tampa net by landing a few well-placed fists on Lightning veteran forward Corey Perry.

The Tampa crowd got into the game late in the first when an errant pass from the corner ended up on the stick of star forward Nikita Kucherov, who was all alone in front of Gustavsson. But the Minnesota goalie quieted the audience quickly with a glove save.

With the momentum clearly on the side of the home team, the Wild got a second power play and converted quickly when a Faber shot from the blue line made it through a crowd to the back of the net.

The Lightning, clearly stung by the deficit, responded with fists of their own, as Tampa winger Scott Sabourin and Wild winger Nick Foligno squared off at center ice with just over a minute to play in the first.

Tampa’s power play got the Lightning on the board early in the middle frame on a seeing-eye Brayden Point shot.

But a pair of Lightning penalties in quick succession put Minnesota on the two-man advantage for 1:40. The Wild controlled play for almost all of the power play, but did not score until the teams were back to 5-on-5 and Tarasenko netted his fifth goal in the past five games.

The momentum was brief, as the Lightning had forged a 3-3 tie before the period ended. A potential go-ahead Wild goal by McCarron did not hold up to video review, when the Lightning challenged for goaltender interference.

Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy had 20 saves in the win.

After an off day on Wednesday, the Wild make their only visit to the Florida Panthers’ home rink for a 6 p.m. CT opening faceoff on Thursday.

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