As Gaborik glides, teammates also sail

Stars defenseman Trevor Daley saw the puck sliding his way near the blue line. His reaction was instinctive, understandable and fatal.

When Daley drifted toward the puck, Marian Gaborik tipped it around him like a Harlem Globetrotter playing a trick on a Washington General, gathered it in and speed-skated toward an easy-as-microwave-popcorn, shorthanded goal.

That quickly -- and Gaborik in mid-stride is as quick as it gets in the NHL -- the Wild started erasing a host of negative trends and providing reminders of last January, when the X held the hottest team in hockey.

A 6-3 victory over Dallas on Thursday night gave the home team a chance at a rare victory over a Western Conference power and ended a horrid little span of hockey for Gaborik, who had been a minus-6 in his previous five games, ever since his five-goal game made him the YouTube player of December.

Gabby the Ghost can turn invisible for weeks, or frighten any opponent any night he's willing to skate. Thursday, he skated, scoring two goals in the first period and even delivering a couple of checks, and suddenly the Wild didn't look soft as custard. "Tonight, we scored a lot of goals and it opened up a bit," Gaborik said. "The open games are pretty fun to watch for the fans but it doesn't always go in our favor."

The Wild had scored two goals in its previous six first periods at the X. Thursday, Gaborik scored two by himself in the first period, and the Wild took a 4-1 lead before the first intermission.

This team has been tiptoeing around the division lead -- and most of its formidable opponents -- for weeks now. Before Thursday, the Wild was 0-5 against Western Conference heavyweights Dallas, San Jose and Detroit, and 1-7 when games against Vancouver were included. In those eight games, the Wild had been outscored 35-13.

It's simplistic to say that as Gaborik goes, so goes the Wild. It's also true.

Last year, the Wild was 19-2-2 when Gaborik scored a goal, and 33-9-6 when he merely played. The Wild is 28-3-2 in his career and 12-2 this season when he scores two or more goals. For his career, the Wild is 21-0-2 when he scores three points or more.

Gaborik isn't the most famous athlete in the Twin Cities. He's not the richest, the most magnetic, or the most reliable, either, but Thursday's game offered a reminder that he might be the most pivotal athlete drawing a check or scholarship in Minnesota.

That shouldn't be the case. Hockey players spend too little time with the puck during the average game, and should be too reliant on teammates, goaltending and luck to matter as much as Gaborik does to the Wild.

Who else, though, matters as much to his team? The Vikings won, and even ran the ball well, without Adrian Peterson. The Twins needed about 12 players to have career years to win the division in 2006 and were more than one player away from winning it in 2007. The Wolves are fast becoming irrelevant, and Tubby Smith has not allowed any individual to become central to his program.

Why did Lemaire split up Demitra and Gaborik this homestand? "Nothing was happening," Lemaire said. "Except goals against."

Thursday, Gaborik reminded us how much fun this game and this building can be when he's using that long, low, stride to make everyone else on the ice look like snowplows grinding through slush.