"You gotta believe in yourselves," coach Bruce Boudreau told the Wild on Tuesday. "You're a good team. You're a good team, and you've beaten some really good teams this year and you've been in every game the last 10 games. If you start believing in yourself, then good things are going to happen."

This wasn't the first time Boudreau relayed these words to a team.

He shared the same advice to the Capitals in 2007 when he took over Washington in November while the team was sputtering.

That group, which was 6-14-1 when Boudreau was brought on, went on to win its division and advance to the playoffs for the first time in five years.

A climb like the Capitals made is rare, but the Wild did respond to Boudreau's message by pocketing one of its most impressive wins of the season — a 4-1 victory over the Sabres at that improved the team to 2-0-1 over its last three games.

SARAH MCLELLAN