Lucky shot, dream prize: St. John’s senior Colin Atkins wins Wild season tickets

For Colin Atkins, what began as a casual stop at the Minnesota Wild booth at the State Fair turned into the kind of moment most hockey fans only dream about.

The Lakeville native and St. John’s University senior is still trying to wrap his head around what happened. After entering a drawing at the Minnesota State Fair alongside his girlfriend, Atkins received an email weeks later informing him that he had won tickets to a Minnesota Wild preseason game and a chance to compete in an intermission shooting contest for a far bigger prize: season tickets.

A few nights later, he found himself standing at center ice with thousands of fans watching.

“It sounds unreal,” Atkins said. “I’ve always dreamed of wanting to do this, especially when I’m getting older, and I didn’t expect it to come at me like this.”

What happened next quickly went viral.

Atkins lined up a p...