Asked Monday if he got away with one, Marek Zidlicky smiled nervously like a child caught with his hand in the leftover-candy pumpkin.
Two days earlier, the Wild defenseman dropped the gloves with Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby after the two clashed behind the net, then in front of it with a nasty slashfest.
The YouTube clips combined for more than 56,000 views by Monday evening. But the video also shows one other subtle yet very vital detail.
Zidlicky's jersey wasn't tied down.
If the refs had noticed, Zidlicky could have been assessed a game misconduct and the Wild would have been down to five defensemen in the third period of an eventual hold-on-for-dear-life first road win of the season. The tie-down rule is in place to protect the player from having his jersey lifted over his head by the opposing fighter.
"That was my mistake. I remember for next time," Zidlicky said, laughing hysterically.
In a one-goal game, Zidlicky took the Penguins' best player off the ice for seven minutes (five for fighting, two for slashing), a tradeoff most would consider advantage Wild .
But Zidlicky didn't look at it that way. He felt the Wild needed him during those seven critical minutes. "I think it's important for me to be on ice, so I didn't like I was seven minutes off," he said. "That's an embarrassment. I like to play, and I put us in bad spot."