Who needs highly-touted young players? The Wild tonight got it done with a backup goalie and a couple of role guys.

While Dan Fritsche and Peter Olvecky provided the offense, how about that showing by Josh Harding? The one goal he did let in, there was little Harding could do. The 44 saves he made? What more can you say but, “WOW!”

It was a pretty happy locker room after the game. We even got more than a few words out of Olvecky, who speaks little English. Obviously a lot of guys were talking about Harding’s night. Harding himself gave credit to his teammates, but no one else would bite on taking credit. He was the show.

That lightning-quick move he made to rob Troy Brouwer will be shown on film for years to come, I bet.

The only bad part to come out of this night is that it appears Owen Nolan might be gone for a bit. He left in the second period with a “lower body” injury and did not return. He will be re-evaluated today, but Jacques Lemaire said it “doesn’t look good” and flat-out said the team might need another player. Stay tuned on that one.

Four big points in 24 hours is huge for this team. The Wild jumped over Anaheim and Edmonton with this win (both those teams were idle Sunday).

So if the Wild can beat Detroit and Chicago on back-to-back nights, what can they do in this grueling upcoming stretch of games? Russo has you covered pretty much the rest of the season, including the whole, big road jaunt in March.

My ride back to the hotel is waiting. So it’s goodnight from Chicago.

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Fans are in their seats. The organist has wrapped up playing some funky tunes. And after some brief difficulties (and a few choice words), I even got the wireless to work here at United Center.

Problem is, I’m having a devil of a time with our little startribune.com blog here. I’m just connecting now after about 20 minutes of trying (and typing out a short post via cell phone when all of a sudden - BAM - the site connected on my laptop.) So I’m warning you all now, if it is acting up again after the game this might be the most condensed gamenight Russo’s Rants ever. That is, unless you all make it spiffy with your great comments

Pregame skate just wrapped up. Josh Harding is in net for the Wild. Colton Gillies is the scratch.

Big night for Martin Skoula, who is skating in his 700th career game the night after scoring a pretty goal against the Wings. More on that in tomorrow’s paper.

This is just my second road trip this season, but both have been to arenas (here and the Sommet Center in Nashville) with HD scoreboards. I approve.

I’ll (hopefully …) be back on after the game.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 at 5:51 pm and is filed under Game coverage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.