Vintage Minnesota Hockey - History

1978:  The Minnesota North Stars faced off against their NHL counterparts in fall exhibition games vs the WHA in games played from 72-78.  The North Stars-5 vs. Winnipeg Jets-6 was played on this date.

1981:  Dino Ciccarelli scored twice in the Minnesota North Stars' 3-3 tie against Toronto, at the Met Center.

1982:  Minnesota North Stars rookie Brian Bellows scored the first goal of his NHL career, and added two assists in a 3-3 tie against the visiting Detroit Red Wings.  Willi Plett was given an eight-game suspension for his encounter with Wings goaltender Greg Stephan.

1987:  New York Rangers traded Dave Gagner and Jay Caufield to the Minnesota North Stars in exchange for Jari Gronstrand and Paul Boutilier.

1988:  Dave Christian scored two goals and added an assist to lead the Capitals to a 6-2 win against the visiting Buffalo Sabres.

1988:  North Stars Brian Bellows scored his 200th NHL career goal as Minnesota lost 4-3, at Montreal.

1992:  The Minnesota North final Met Center home opener, in their 26th NHL season, ends with a 5-2 win over St. Louis.

2005:  Sharks trailed 5-3 after two periods, but Tom Preissing and Nick Dimitrakos tied the score on goals in a 27-second span early in the third period to lead San Jose to a 7-6 win against the Blues at St. Louis.

2005:  Randy Robitaille scored a goal in the first period of his first game as a member of the Minnesota Wild, a 2-1 loss at Phoenix.  Robitaille went on to score 12 goals and 28 assists, for 40 points in 67 games with Minnesota in 2005-06.

2005:  Coleraine, MN native - Ken Gernanders' jersey #12 was retired by the AHL's Hartford Wolfpack - the only player to bestow this honour to have his jersey retired by the franchise, where he served as team captain for 10 years, and Head Coach upon retirement.

2011:  For the first time in Minnesota history 3 players scored their first goals with the Wild in the same game, when Dany Heatley, Sevin Setoguchi and Marco Scandella all connected in a 4-2 win over the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets.

2014:  St. Louis Blues mutually agreed to terminate Bloomington, MN native Peter Mueller's contract.

2015:  Minnesota Wild rallied from three-goals down to enter the 3rd period to open the 2015-2016 season on the road vs. Colorado Avalanche to win 5-4 led behind a Zach Parise hat-trick (3rd career hat-trick for Zach, and 1st as a member of the Minnesota Wild).  First time the Wild has come from behind on the road since March 5, 2009 (down 3-0 in 2nd period in 4-3 OT win vs. San Jose).  With the win, the Wild were the 2nd team in NHL history to win a season opener in regulation after trailing by three goals in the 3rd period since 10-11-1986 in a Hartford Whalers-6 vs. Calgary-5 defeat.

2015:  Zach Parise was named #1 Star of The Night with his 3-goal performance, per Elias Sports Bureau Parise joined only Marc Chouinard (10-5-2005) as the only season-opener franchise hat-tricks, 49th season-opening hat-trick in NHL history.  Ryan Suter notched his 300th career assist in the win.