Down memory lane: Marian Gaborik’s first goal for the Wild came with a wooden stick

No one has scored more goals for the Wild, including game-winners.

And that five-goal game might be untouchable forever.

But Marian Gaborik figures Kirill Kaprizov will catch up.

“He’s going to break all the records,” said Gaborik. “He’s becoming a true superstar. He already is pretty much and obviously signing a big deal — that’s what Wild fans needed, to have a guy like this, and hopefully it’s going to work out for both sides.”

Gaborik was reminiscing Tuesday while in St. Paul to attend the Wild’s 25th anniversary celebration alongside Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Brian Rolston and Stephane Veilleux, with the team wearing a special jersey against Winnipeg at Grand Casino Arena inspired by the inaugural season.

The Wild’s first superstar, Gaborik counted that five-goal performance Dec. 20, 2007, vs. the New York Rangers as a feat he’ll always remember, with his first goal also a highlight.

“In Anaheim with a wooden stick,” said Gaborik, 43. “I don’t think a lot of these guys have ever held a wooden stick in their life.”

After getting drafted third overall in 2000, Gaborik and the Wild debuted later that year, and “everybody started on the same page,” he recalled, since they were an expansion team.

“Every place I played was special in some way, but this is close to my heart because I started here,” said Gaborik, whose 219 career goals and 43 game-winners remain tops in franchise history. “I spent nine years [here] including [the] lockout. Things obviously didn’t end up the way everybody wanted, but it is what it is.

“Great memories. Made a lot of great friends here, which I still keep in touch with and other guys that I played with. Yeah, they were special nine years, for sure.”

Bouchard, 41, felt butterflies returning to the Twin Cities and flashed back to the first flight he took here as an 18-year-old arriving for training camp, what would be the start of the Wild’s most successful season in 2002-03 when they advanced to the Western Conference finals.

“To be part of that, I will remember that all my life,” said Bouchard, who has settled in Montreal and is a self-proclaimed “dance dad” with two daughters. “The atmosphere at the rink, outside the rink, it was unbelievable, and it was pretty special.”

“Nobody expected us to go that far, beating the teams where they had superstars — [Joe] Sakic, [Peter] Forsberg, all these guys, [Rob] Blake,” Gaborik said, “and it was definitely special.”

Rolston came on board in 2005 and deployed his trademark slap shot in the shootout at the advice of then-coach Jacques Lemaire.

“The first time I actually did it I got tripped down on a penalty kill, and I was exhausted,” Rolston said. “So, I was like, ‘I’m just going to try it here.’ It was against [Roberto] Luongo, and I did and it worked out. So, I used it a few more times after that.”

Living now in the Detroit suburbs, Rolston, 52, watches his sons play hockey, and Gaborik has stayed involved in the sport, too.

He went back to his native Slovakia and has a hockey school.

Marian Gaborik, 219

Mikko Koivu, 205

Zach Parise, 199

Kirill Kaprizov, 190

Joel Eriksson Ek, 138

Andrew Brunette, 119

Jared Spurgeon, 118

Eric Staal, 111

Nino Niederreiter, 110

Matt Boldy, 107

Mats Zuccarello, 103

Ryan Hartman, 100