Strong special teams have been a major components in the Bruins’ surprisingly competitive season. On Sunday, we saw what can happen when they don’t win that part of the game.

In the final game of their three-game road trip, the B’s four-game win streak ended with a thud in a 6-2 loss to the Wild in Minnesota.

When the game was still competitive, the B’s could not capitalize on their two power-play opportunities while the Wild cashed in on both their man advantages and that, along with timely saves from Filip Gustavsson (29 saves), was the difference before the game got away from them.

In a measuring stick game, the B’s did not measure up on this night.

Both teams got one power play apiece in the first period, but only the Wild took advantage of theirs. While all the pregame buzz had to do with the arrival of Quinn Hughes after Minnesota’s huge trade with Vancouver on Friday night, it was another small, crafty defenseman who put the Wild on the board at 10:11.

With Nikita Zadorov in the box for an interference call he didn’t like, Wild captain Jared Spurgeon used a screen in front of Jeremy Swayman to snap a shot from high in the circle and beat the netminder.

Both Swayman and his counterpart, Gustavsson, came up with big saves in the first as the B’s had a 7-6 shot advantage in the opening 20 minutes.

What was more concerning than the one-goal deficit for the B’s was the fact that their leading goal scorer, Morgan Geekie, left the game with about five minutes remaining in the first after blocking a shot. Geekie did not come out at the start of the second, but he reappeared when the B’s got a second power play early in the period.

They could not convert that one, either, as Gustavsson came up with a big save on a good Pavel Zacha chance from the slot.

But the B’s kept getting chances. Elias Lindholm had a partial break off the left and his shot seem to handcuff Gustavsson. But neither Lindholm nor Alex Steeves could get enough of their blade on the loose puck to knock it home before it was cleared.

The puck luck was on Minnesota’s side and at 8:49, the Wild took a 2-0 lead, thanks to a fortunate bounce and tremendous skill. Matt Boldy’s centering pass attempt from high on the right wing was deflected off a Bruin and went to the end boards. It ricocheted to give Kirill Kaprizov a room-service bounce and he just flicked a backhander over Swayman for the two-goal lead.

When Mikey Eyssimont, who drew back into the lineup with the injury to Viktor Arviddson, took a slashing penalty, the game got away from the B’s. Late in the power play, Brock Faber gained the zone with speed, blew past Charlie McAvoy to create a 2-on-0 and dished it Ryan Hartman for a pretty redirection goal.

That three-goal deficit looked insurmountable with the way Gustavsson was playing and the fact that the Wild were ranked fifth in goals against average, allowing just 2.63 a game.

It was.

And 54 seconds into the third, Hughes brought the Minnesota crowd to its feet when he got on the board with his first goal as a member of the Wild, beating Swayman on a wrister that somehow broke through the netminder.

If the B’s had been staggering, that was the knockout punch.

Boldy made it a blowout with a seeing-eye goal before Alex Steeves’ goal at 10:58 prevented the B’s from suffering their first shutout loss of the season. Kaprizov’s added his second of the night to finish off Minnesota’s scoring, but that game was over before then.