After watching another tepid start from his team, and staring down a fourth straight loss, Wild coach Dean Evason finally pulled the trigger on a notion he and his coaching staff have had for some time this season.

He broke up his top line, and it seemed to inject some juice into his team as the Wild rallied within a goal early in the third period. In the end, though, the Wild’s leaky penalty kill was the difference.

Timo Meier, Jesper Bratt and Dougie Hamilton scored power-play goals, and Vitek Vanecek stopped 22 shots as the Devils swept the season series from the Wild with a 5-3 victory Thursday at Xcel Energy Center.

Kirill Kaprizov, Marco Rossi and Jake Middleton scored goals as the Wild rallied from a 3-0 to pull within 3-2 and 4-3 in the third period, but the Devils were 3 for 5 on the power play.

Meier gave the Devils a 3-0 lead with a power-play goal early in the second period, and Bratt one-timed a pass from the left circle past Filip Gustavsson to make it 4-2 with 4 minutes, 22 seconds remaining.

Middleton scored less than a minute later from a scrum at the crease and pulled the Wild back within a goal at 16:27, and the Wild pulled Gustavsson with 2:22 remaining.

The Wild were applying pressure on Vanecek, but Matt Boldy, returning from a seven-game injury absence, was called for interference trying to stop an empty-net chance with 1:32 remaining, and Kaprizov joined him in the box seconds later and the Wild spent the rest of the game trying to kill another penalty with a two-man disadvantage.

Hamilton’s one-timer from the top of the left circle ended it, beating Gustavsson for a 5-3 lead with 33 seconds left. Gustavsson finished with 33 saves.

Evason’s line changes came after the Devils took a 2-0 lead on even-strength goals by Alexander Holtz, alone in the slot, and Michael McLeod. The Wild’s top line scored some decent zone time but went back to the dressing room with only Ryan Hartman’s single shot on goal.

Kaprizov scored on a wrist shot from the point on a power play to cut Minnesota’s deficit to 3-1 at 9:03 of the second period, and the Wild played a few minutes with what Evason has been calling “swagger” — energy, pace and a sense of confidence. They made Vanecek stop only seven more shots, but the scoring chances were better.

In the third period, the Wild came out hard, scoring early on the first shift from a line with Rossi centering Kaprizov and Boldy. Rossi ended a quick forecheck with a goal into an empty corner after Boldy got his own rebound and passed it across the crease.

That made it 3-2 at 1:10, and the Wild kept coming — even after falling behind 4-2 on Bratt’s late power-play goal.

But in the end, the Devils were 3 for 5 on the power play, the difference in another loss for a Wild team that has lost four straight and fallen to 3-5-2.