NHL's red-light special

Even after the game of his life, even after he scored more goals in an NHL game since way before Ryder Rolston was born, Marian Gaborik got zero respect from the Wild locker room's unofficial but legendary mascot Friday.

Much to the delight of a hysterical bunch of teammates, Gaborik was heckled unmercifully by Brian Rolston's 6-year-old son after Friday's practice.

"What was wrong with you last night, Gabby? Why didn't you score six?" Ryder Rolston repeated while pointing at Gaborik, whose blushing face turned redder than the goal lights he nearly burnt out Thursday night.

How special was Gaborik's five-goal, six-point performance during the Wild's 6-3 victory over the New York Rangers? It led ESPN's Thursday night/Friday morning "SportsCenter" and got mentions on "Around the Horn" and "Pardon the Interruption," something that doesn't happen every day in the NHL, and especially to the Wild.

After Thursday's game, Gaborik was on such a high, he couldn't fall asleep until after 2 a.m.

Friday, he got inundated with congratulatory phone calls and text messages from family, including his parents and brother, and friends, such as Chicago Blackhawks star Martin Havlat.

"It was an unbelievable night," said Gaborik, who will tie Wes Walz's franchise record tonight against the Detroit Red Wings by playing in his 438th game. "You're in some kind of a zone where things are going for you. After the game, you keep thinking about it, how it happened, what led to it. You try to pinch yourself to see if it's real."

• "He's probably got the quickest first two steps in the league," Edmonton's Steve Staios told the Edmonton Journal. "I'm not surprised he could put together a night like he just had. He probably gets five or six offensive chances a night when he's on his game."

• Added Edmonton's Sheldon Souray: "This guy just turns it up. If he could ever stay healthy, he could score 60 goals."

• "In today's game, when there's not as many 50-goal scorers, it's quite an accomplishment," Joe Nieuwendyk, who once scored five in a 1989 game for Calgary, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

To put in perspective what an achievement this was, from 1975-96, the NHL had one to three five-goal games virtually every year. Until Gaborik on Thursday, there was not one since Detroit's Sergei Fedorov on Dec. 26, 1996.

That epitomizes just how much tougher today's game, which is tight-checking, faster and with bigger, better goalies, is from yesteryear.

After the game, veterans Sean Hill and Keith Carney lifted Gaborik on top of their interlocked arms and carried him off the ice.

"I tried getting a chair there, but everything happened so fast, I decided to put him in the car and take him for a short lap," Hill said, laughing. "The crowd seemed to love it. It was loud as hell. Then, when we picked him up there, the crowd exploded. It was hilarious.

"That's the best performance I've ever seen. I'm willing to bet a lot I'll never be a part of something like that again."

The funny thing is, when Gaborik gets into one of these kinds of zones, he makes scoring goals look so easy. Gaborik has nine of the Wild's 13 hat tricks.

Gaborik has 20 points in his past 17 games and 17 goals in his past 19, but coach Jacques Lemaire said: "The last three games, he's been different. The last three, he's been skating hard and playing both sides of the ice, getting involved more, wanting the puck more and doing things with it."

"You don't quite appreciate anyone as much until you play with him, but for years I've seen highlights where he's in sixth gear and a guy's going on second. You just kind of shake your head and glad it's someone else and not you.