Vintage Minnesota Hockey - History

1915:   Former NHL right winger Joe Papike born in Eveleth, MN. Papike played in the NHL 1940-41 through 1944-45 with Chicago.

1972:  Dennis Hextall scored both goals to lead the North Stars to a 2-2 tie against Philadelphia at the Met Center.

1977:  Former NHL center Erik Rasmussen born in Minneapolis, MN. Rasmussen played in the NHL 1997-98 through 2006-07 with Buffalo, Los Angeles and New Jersey.

1978:  Goaltender Ron Low recorded his third career shutout (and his only one with Detroit) in the Red Wings 7-0 win over the Sabres at the Olympia. Reed Larson scored a goal and four assists and rookie Paul Woods had a goal and two assists.

1978:  North Stars' Harvey Bennett tied a franchise record with three goals in the third period, and finished with four goals (his first career hat trick) in a 9-4 win over the visiting Vancouver Canucks.

1980:  North Stars set a team record with their seventh straight win, 2-1 over the Winnipeg Jets.

1982:  Defenseman Reed Larson scored a goal and added two assists as the Red Wings ended their team-record 7 game home losing streak, with a 6-4 win over the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs.

1988:  Brian Bellows scored a goal and 3 assists as the North Stars tied 7-7 with the Blackhawks in Minnesota.  Steve Larmer scored his 4th career hat trick, and Denis Savard picked up four assists for Chicago.

1988:  Minnesota's Dino Ciccarelli set a franchise record with 14 shots and scored twice to give him 300 goals in his NHL career as the North Stars tied 7-7 with the visiting Chicago Blackhawks.

1991:  The 1991 NCAA Men's Frozen Four Championship held on March 28 through March 30th at the St. Paul Civic Center billed as 'Fire on Ice', co-hosted by University of Minnesota Twin Cities, and University of Minnesota Duluth. Northern Michigan University defeated Boston University 8-7 in OT to capture the schools first ever National Championship.

1999:  Florida's Mark Parrish scored twice to become the first rookie to reach the 20-goal milestone in the 1998-99 season and the first U.S. born player in Panthers history to do so, in a 2-2 tie at New Jersey.

2000:  Atlanta's Damian Rhodes made 42 saves in a 5-2 loss in Washington.

2001:  Minnesota Wild had their 39th straight sellout crowd (18,568) in a 2-0 loss to Phoenix, to set an attendance record for a first year expansion team.  They broke the mark of 705,389 set in 1999-2000 by the Atlanta Thrashers.

2002:  Sean Hill scored a goal and added two assists in Carolina's 4-1 win over the visiting Philadelphia Flyers.

2003:  Cliff Ronning sent the game to overtime by scoring with 36.9 seconds left in regulation and Richark Park scored the winner at 1:14 of OT as the Wild reached the 40 win milestone for the 1st time in team history with a 4-3 win over the visiting Blackhawks.

2006:  Manny Fernandez set a Minnesota Wild team record for goaltender with his 51st appearance of the season, a 3-2 win at Edmonton. He broke the mark of 50 games set by Dwayne Roloson in 2002-03.

2008:  Edmonton's Tom Gilbert had a goal and an assist to break an Oilers team record for rookie defensemen (set by Paul Coffey in 1980-81) with his 32nd point of the season, in a 5-4 shootout loss at Colorado.

2008:  NJ Devils recorded their 12th straight home win over Philadelphia when Johnny Oduya had his first two-goal game and Brian Gionta, Patrik Elias & Jamie Langenbrunner scored in the shootout, for a 5-4 victory over the Flyers.

2008:  Minnesota goaltender Niklas Backstrom set a franchise record with his 31st victory of the season, and had his 9th career shutout as the Wild won 4-0 over the visiting Vancouver Canucks.

2014:  Grand Rapids, MN native Alex Goligoski assisted on three goals and posted a +5 rating for the Dallas Stars in their 7-3 win over the visiting Nashville Predators.

2015:  Minnesota Wild defeated the defending Stanley Cup Champions 4-1 in St. Paul.  In the win, Mikko Koivu notched his 25th career three-point game, and the second of the season (other February 9th vs. Vancouver).  Koivu also posted his 115th career multi-point game to move past Marian Gaborik (114) and into sole possession of the most such performances in Wild history.  Koivu also scored the game-winning goal for the 2nd time in as many days and had 25 such goals in his career and 4th for the 2014-2015 season.  Devan Dubnyk made his 35th consecutive start in goal (34 with Minnesota) and stopped 31 shots to improve to 35-11-3 overall.  Dubnyks' 2.05 GAA, and .930 Save % ranked both 2nd in the NHL.

2020:  The Dallas Stars of NHL relocated to Dallas from Minnesota following 1992-1993 season.  Dallas playing in franchises 4,124th game vs. visiting Columbus BlueJackets (1967-2020).  This game marks the tie between games played in each city: 2,062 in Minnesota and 2,062 in Dallas.  (The following game March 30, 2020 vs. the visiting Vancouver Canucks was tie-breaker)