Things didn't come as easily for the Wild on Saturday night as they did two nights earlier against the Vancouver Canucks.
Wild players had to work for everything they got against the St. Louis Blues. They had to sacrifice bodies to make a play, take a punch to draw a penalty.
But in a tight-checking, fast-paced game that seemed to be in the Wild's control even when it was scoreless, the Wild rode another complete four-line, six-defensemen effort and terrific Josh Harding goaltending en route to a 2-1 victory at Xcel Energy Center.
Sitting at 3-3-3 seven nights ago, the Wild has won four in a row since and has done a complete 180 in the confidence/buy-in department. The battle level? That's never been an issue.
"We were great tonight the way we battled," said Harding, who made 30 saves and was in net for each of the victories. "It's not an easy team to play against. They come at you every shift. ... The battle level was awesome tonight."
Harding's shutout bid was ruined by Jamie Langenbrunner with 2:02 left, but he didn't care. Dany Heatley and Guillaume Latendresse scored second-period goals to help the Wild remain fourth in the West as it embarks on a five-game road trip.
"St. Louis came here with a sense of urgency, but what made the difference, everybody's working hard and everybody's ready to go," said Latendresse, who scored the winner. "It's so fun to play those kind of games when both teams are working hard."
The Wild's game plan was to get pucks deep and grind down the Blues, who played the night before in St. Louis. It worked. The Blues clearly began to fatigue, and frustration set in late with several skirmishes.
