Vintage Minnesota Hockey - History

1971:  Former NHL defenseman Sean O’Donnell born in Ottawa, Ont.  O’Donnell played in the NHL 1994-95 through 2011-2012 with Los Angeles, Minnesota Wild, New Jersey, Boston, Phoenix, Anaheim, Philadelphia and Chicago.

1972:  The Minnesota Fighting Saints of the newly formed World Hockey Association (WHA) played their first game on Friday the 13th, a 4-3 first team loss against the visiting Winnipeg Jets, at the St. Paul Auditorium before a crowd of 7,892.  In other team firsts that were made that night: First Team Goal was scored by Wayne Connelly at 13:04 in the 1st period, with the first team assists by John Arbour & Mel Pearson.  First Goal Against by Chris Bordeleau, Winnipeg, at 5:54 of 1st period.  First Team Penalty by Dick Paradise (elbowing).  First Power-Play Goal by Fred Speck.  The Saints led the game after two periods, but the Jets scored twice in the third, and won on the late Duke Amundson goal with 1:29 remaining.  Bobby Hull coached the Jets, but wasn't allowed to play because of a court injunction.  Fred Speck and Mike McMahon also scored for the Saints who donned their gold third alternate jerseys for the first game.

1973:  Buffalo Sabres beat the Minnesota North Stars 4-3, scoring two third period goals against veteran Gump Worsley, who was wearing a goalie mask for the first time in his 21 year NHL career.

1979:  Bobby Smith scored twice and added an assist to lead the North Stars to a 5-1 win over the Black Hawks, in Minnesota.

1980:  Former NHL defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron born in St-Louis-de-France, Que. Bergeron played in the NHL 2002-03 through 2012-2013 with Edmonton, New York Islanders, Anaheim, Minnesota, Montreal, Tampa Bay, and Carolina.

1988:  Minnesota North Stars and Philadelphia Flyers scored a team combined 10 power-play goals (Flyers-6, North Stars-4) in a 7-6 North Stars loss.

1991:  Paul Holmgren won his 100th game as the Flyers' head coach, a 4-2 win over New Jersey, at the Spectrum.

1992:  Calgary Flames edged the Minnesota North Stars 4-3 before a crowd of 8,783 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in the first game of the NHL's experiment with neutral site games during the 1992-93 season.

2008:  Philadelphia Flyers obtained Andrew Alberts from Boston in exchange for Ned Lukacevic and a 2009 4th round draft pick.

2011:  Minnesota Wild extended their home winning streak against Edmonton to 17 straight games (and Niklas Backstrom improved to 15-0-0 lifetime against Edmonton) with a 2-1 shootout victory over the visiting Oilers.

2014:  Minnesota Wild placed defenseman/right wing Stu Bickel on waivers.

2014:  Minnesota Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk was named NHL's Second Star of the Week after his back-to-back shutouts to open the 2014-2015 season.

2018:  Minnesota State University Mavericks celebrated the beginning of its 50th season of hockey.  The team unveiled its inaugural class of Legends of Maverick Hockey program, honoring first Coach Don Brose, first Captain Karl Ulrich, 1980 National Championship Captain Steve Forliti, first NHL'er Tim Jackman and first NHL Captain and Olympian David Backes.