Luke Kunin had a strong offensive performance.
Zach Parise continued his hot streak around the net.
And special teams delivered three goals.
But the Wild struggled to embrace those positives in the aftermath of a crushing 5-4 defeat at the hands of the Panthers Monday night at Xcel Energy Center, a result that wasn't confirmed until the final seconds.

"Right now, we needed the win," Parise said. "We needed the win. That's the only thing we should be looking for right now is how can we get wins. And it didn't happen."
Before the latter part of the third, the Wild was in a neck-and-neck battle with one of the NHL's better outfits of late and had actually pried the lead away from the Panthers on Kunin's second goal of the night 7 minutes, 6 seconds into the third period.
A defensive breakdown by Greg Pateryn and a "soft" goal, as goalie Alex Stalock described it, tied the game at 4 with just 4:08 remaining in the third.
After that, the action seemed destined for extra time but Florida nixed that script when Noel Acciari's stick deflected in a puck at 19:54 – a head-scratching sequence considering Acciari was tied up by defenseman Ryan Suter, who literally had a grip on Acciari's stick.