All-Star trip made vivid memories for Rolston, son

By MICHAEL RUSSO, Star Tribune

Last update: December 27, 2007 - 1:12 AM

DALLAS - American Airlines Center will always be a special place for Brian Rolston because that's where the Wild winger helped ruin last year's All-Star Game.

OK, maybe that's an overstatement of drastic proportions. But with the NHL giddy with anticipation that Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin were on the same line for the first time last winter, wily vets Rolston, Bill Guerin and Yanic Perreault shut down the young stars en route to a 12-9 West victory.

Rolston was a plus-5 with two goals and two assists to surpass Marian Gaborik for the most points by a Wild All-Star (Gaborik scored a goal and two assists in the 2003 game).

Ovechkin and Crosby, going mostly head-to-head with the West's "checking line," had one goal and were a combined minus-6.

"I said to [Guerin], 'Let's not let them embarrass us,' so we were coming back hard," Rolston said, laughing. "Obviously, being my first All-Star Game and scoring and having my whole family here, it was special and a lot of fun."

It was also special for Rolston's 6-year-old son, Ryder, who tagged along with Dad the entire time. A big fan of goalies, Ryder met Roberto Luongo and Miikka Kiprusoff and got a hat signed by Crosby.

"He was with me in the locker room and sat on the bench during the Super Skills," said Rolston, adding with a laugh, "When I [recently] went 10 games there without a goal, Ryder said to me, 'Dad, I don't think you're making the All-Stars this year.'

"It didn't sting me. Me and my wife [Jennifer] looked at each other and just started laughing. He was disappointed for himself, not me. But we'll see."

A heating-up Rolston did have 11 points in 11 games and was second on the Wild with 12 goals and 26 points heading into Wednesday's game at Dallas.

Forced into stardom

The biggest benefactor of Dallas defenseman Philippe Boucher's shoulder injury has been 21-year-old Matt Niskanen, the former Virginia High School and Minnesota Duluth standout.

Niskanen made the Stars out of training camp as a sixth defenseman and has suddenly been thrust into being future Hall of Famer Sergei Zubov's partner.

After Wednesday's game against the Wild, Niskanen led Stars blue- liners with a plus-12 and was second behind Zubov with two goals, 12 assists and 14 points. He had an assist on Niklas Hagman's goal at 1:33 of the first period Wednesday.

"The process for him to get to the NHL has fast-tracked," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "We had a couple injuries that forced him into probably more situations than he would have gotten a look at, and he's just grabbed those situations and ran with them. And he's continuing to run.

"He came in and started out probably as a 5, 6 defenseman playing 12-14 minutes, and a month later he's playing with Zubov getting 22 minutes. He's turning into a very good NHL defenseman."

Etc.

• Gaborik, the reigning NHL First Star of the Week, passed Wes Walz as the leader on the Wild's all-time games played list (439).

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