"I scored five goals back home [in Slovakia], but to score five goals in the NHL, it's totally a different experience. To reach it here with these guys and in front of our fans, it's just unbelievable. Wonderful experience." Gaborik said.
Gaborik's first goal came with the Wild trailing 1-0 at 13:33 of the first period when Aaron Voros made a behind the back, between his legs pass to Pavol Demitra who fed the puck across the crease to Gaborik who had an easy redirection past the Ranger's Henrik Lundqvist.
Goal #2 arrived at 3:47 of the second on the power play when Mark Parrish, behind the Rangers goal, fed the puck to Demitra who was behind the net to the right. He fed the to Gaborik stationed in front of the net, who shot the puck, which then bounced up in the air and Gaborik swatted in the waist level rebound over Lundqvist's shoulder and into the net.
The third goal also came on a power play when Pierre-Marc Bouchard had the puck on the blue line and passed to Brent Burns who sent a pass from the boards on the left near the top of the face off circle to Gaborik in the slot, who simply skated toward the net and pulled the puck far to his backhand and put it around Lundqvist for the natural hat trick at 5:38, causing the hats to rain down onto the ice.
After Martin Straka scored for New York at 6:29, Bouchard restored the Wild's two goal lead on yet another power play goal with an assist from Gaborik at 10:56.
Then, at 7:15 of the third period, Minnesota's Martin Skoula did this...
We can't say we've ever seen anyone look that bad during an NHL game ever before.
Just 41 seconds later, the magic continued when Nick Schultz shot the puck in from the blue line, which deflected off of Voros in the slot, right into Gaborik's strike zone to the left of the goal where he flipped it in out of mid-air directly into the net for goal #4.
The fifth goal came when Gaborik stole the puck at the defensive blue line and streaked down the ice and fired one of his lighting quick wrist shots past Lunqvist at 9:31.
The Rangers mercifully pulled Lundqvist with 7:56 remaining in the game, replacing him with Steve Valiquette. When Michael Roszival received 2 minutes for elbowing Gaborik and a ten minute misconduct at 16:21 Gaborik's teammates feed him puck after puck in an attempt for #6, only to have Gaborik return the passes. Undaunted, they would refuse the puck and once more send the it back to Gaborik in an effort to get him to shoot. Finally, a wide open Gaborik to the right of the goal received a perfect feed and fired a one-timer at the wide open goal, only to have Valiquette make an outstanding reaction to the cross ice pass and thwart Gaborik on what looked to be a certain goal, denying the fans at the Xcel Energy Center one final chance to erupt.
It was Gaborik's second six point night of his career and came on ten shots on goal
"Every time Gabby touched the puck, it was just electric," defenseman Burns said.
"It was pretty amazing," Wild captain Mark Parrish said. "He was banking 'em in out of the air, scoring on breakaways, skating through everybody with it, making highlight-film goals. My god, he was doing it every which-way tonight. When a guy like that's feeling it, it gets pretty scary for the other team."
Today's featured jersey is a Koho 2005-06 Minnesota Wild Marian Gaborik alternate jersey. This jersey was first introduced in 2003 in a game against the Colorado Avalanche, another contest we here at Third String Goalie were in attendance for.
While the Wild had only been around for three seasons at the time, the hockey heritage of the state of Minnesota runs deep and this "throwback" look captures that tradition and instantly became a top seller. When forced to decide between their home green jersey and red alternate when the third jerseys were discontinued during the first season of the new Reebok Edge jerseys in 2007, the Wild's sales figures of 70% red jerseys, 20% white and 10% green made the choice an obvious one in favor of keeping the red jersey.
This jersey style has some unique features, such as it's felt crest and sweater-style material for the collar.
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