The Wild won for the sixth time in seven games overall tonight when it took a 5-1 victory over the Calgary Flames.
Justin Fontaine, … wait for it … ZENON KONOPKA and Zach Parise helped the Wild turn a 2-1 lead into a 5-1 rout with third-period goals.
Konopka, who's half fighter, half winemaker, half decanter company owner, half bunny rabbit owner, half class clown (wait, how many halves in a whole?), scored his first goal since Dec. 16, 2011 (81-game drought) and first point in 53 games with the Wild. Torrey Mitchell sent him in alone and his pal Dany Heatley, who had another great game on that line, scooped up the puck for Konopka.
Konopka joked that he hoped the goals "come in bunches now. I'm not going to bet my life on it."
Konopka, who plays the role of protector on the ice, then volunteered this out of the blue on Heatley: "Dany Heatley gets put on our line. Total professional. Instead of coming with a bad attitude to our line, total opposite. So excited to play with me and Mitchell, raised our game and was excited to play with us. I think it shows the unselfishness of him and being a true professional."
Classy guy, that Konopka.
The goal of the night was Zach Parise finishing off an incredible tic-tac-toe highlight goal assisted by Mikko Koivu and Ryan Suter. The crowd erupted, and here are the highlights of all the goals.
Wrote a lot about the goal in the gamer, so give it a read. But check out Parise's goal celebration. His mouth was just wide-open. Classic. You'll be seeing this goal a lot in Wild folklore and John Buccigross tweeted that he was putting it on SportsCenter tonight.