After seeing ugly back-to-back losses, the cynics began to fear that the rug was about to be pulled from under the feel-good story that was the Wild.
That's to be expected. This is Minnesota, where lately sports fans are used to losing teams.
But Monday night, 24 hours after a repugnant performance against Calgary, the Wild went back to the roots that made it so successful the first two months.
It battled. It played defense. And it focused more on the process of what it takes to get the victory rather than the victory itself. The result was ... a win -- an impressive one by a 3-1 score over last season's Eastern Conference finalists, the Tampa Bay Lightning.
"The most important thing for us was to come here and play a 60-minute game and play our game structure-wise, system-wise, execution-wise and battle-level-wise," said coach Mike Yeo after walking into the postgame news conference wearing a big smile. "It was a great job by our guys to bring that attitude to the rink."
The Lightning struck first, but when the Wild is going well, it sticks with the game plan until it finally strikes. Cal Clutterbuck provided the jolt with another huge short-handed goal, his league-leading third.
Niklas Backstrom, one night after giving up three goals on eight shots, bounced back with 32 saves. The Wild blocked 23 shots, led by Mike Lundin (in his Wild debut) and Greg Zanon (playing his first game in 17), who blocked 10. And the Wild out-trapped the Lightning's much-ballyhooed 1-3-1 scheme by rimming pucks hard and getting in on the forecheck.
"You have to accept that it will be a hard game," Yeo said. "You're not going to be able to just dance through the neutral zone and make pretty plays."