ST. PAUL -- If the Wild is going to climb back into the postseason mix in the Western Conference, it would be wise to take its game plan from Thursday night and run it through hockey's version of a Xerox machine.
Minnesota frustrated the explosive and red-hot Tampa Bay Lightning on its way to a 3-2 victory at Xcel Energy Center, a win that snapped an ugly four-game losing streak and, hopefully anyway, set the tone for the team's final sprint into the All-Star break.
The game also started a streak of 10 of 11 games on home ice, a stretch of games which will likely define the stretch run of the Wild's season.
Wild finds its blueprint ... now it needs to duplicate it
Minnesota stymies red-hot Tampa Bay in victory Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center