Vintage Minnesota Hockey - History

1958:  Former NHL center Mark Pavelich born in Eveleth, Minnesota.  Pavelich played in the NHL 1981-82 through 1991-92 with the New York Rangers, the Minnesota North Stars and San Jose.

1960:  The U.S. Olympic hockey team scored six goals in the final period, to beat Czechoslovakia 9-4 and captured the Countries first ever Gold Medal in Olympic hockey competition in the 1960 Olympics held at Squaw Valley, California.

1973:  Jude Drouin scored two goals and two assists, Buster Harvey had a goal and four assists, and Danny Grant added a goal and three assists in the Minnesota North Stars' 7-3 win over the California Seals at the Met Center.

1974:  Minnesota's Murray Oliver scored his 250th career NHL goal, in the North Stars' 2-2 tie at Philadelphia.

1976:  The first installment of the Minnesota Fighting Saints officially folded three days following their final home game at the Civic Center (February 25th) in the lobby of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, moments before the team was scheduled to board a flight to Cincinnati for a game that night.  In 1975-76, the Saints had a winning record of 30-25-4 and were second in the West behind the Houston Aeros when they sadly ceased operations because of financial struggles - ending the saga in which the team was paid once in the previous 2 months of playing.

1978:  Minnesota North Stars set franchise records with 49 penalty minutes in the third period and 63 penalty minutes in the game, a 7-1 loss at St. Louis.

1980:  Defenseman Reed Larson scored a goal and added two assists to lead the Red Wings to a 4-1 win over the visiting Washington Capitals.

1982:  Defenseman Craig Hartsburg scored two goals and an assist to lead the Minnesota North Stars to a 5-4 win over the Red Wings at Detroit.

1988:  Joel Otto scored twice as the Flames won 3-2 over the Oilers at Edmonton.

1989:  Minnesota North Stars scored twice in the final minute of the game to beat the Capitals 4-3, for their first victory in the Capital Centre in nearly seven years.  North Stars had been 0-8-1 in Landover since 10-23-82.

1989:  Dave Gagner scored twice and added an assist to lead the Minnesota North Stars to a 4-3 win at Washington.

2000:  Minnesota Wild announced an agreement with WCCO Radio (830 AM) as the club's official flagship radio station.

2007:  Minnesota Wild acquired Aaron Voros from New Jersey in exchange for a 7th round pick in 2008.

2011:  Boston acquired goalie Anton Khudobin from the Minnesota Wild in exchange defenseman Jeff Penner and the rights to forward Mikko Lehtonen.

2013:  Dany Heatley scored twice and Niklas Backstrom made 25 saves as the Wild beat the Coyotes 4-3 in Phoenix.

2014:   Minnesota's Justin Fontaine scored the game-deciding goal in his first career shootout attempt to give the Wild a 2-1 victory at Vancouver.

2014:  Last ever hockey games played within historic Minnesota State Fair Coliseum/Hippodrome grounds, before the ice was removed forever: Centennial High School Cougars-2 vs. Blaine Bengals-1 in the Class AA, Section 5 Championship, and Stillwater Ponies-2 vs. Hill-Murray Pioneers-1 Class AA Section 4 championship games were played.

2018:  Eric Staal scored three goals in a 8-3 win over St. Louis Blues.

FEBRUARY 29th

(Leap Day on the Gregorian Calendar is a date that occurs in most years that are divisible by 4 such as: 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016....)

1960:  Former NHL right winger Jim Dobson born in Winnipeg, Man. Dobson played in the NHL 1979-80 through 1981-82 with the Minnesota North Stars and the Colorado Rockies.

1972:  Minnesota North Stars signed Jim McElmury as a free agent.

1988:   Washington traded John Barrett to the Minnesota North Stars in exchange for future considerations.

2004:  Minnesota's Andrei Zyuzin tied a team record for most goals in a game by a defenseman when he scored two in a 3-3 tie against the visiting Carolina Hurricanes.

2008:   Brent Burns tied a Minnesota Wild team record for defensemen with his 11th goal of the season and added an assist in a 3-2 win over the Panthers in Florida. He tied the mark set by Lubomir Serekas in 2001-02.

2016:  Wild traded goaltender Niklas Backstrom and a sixth round draft pick to Calgary Flames.  (Wild received David Jones in return in draft).