Feature Story
The day the NHL came to Minnesota
By Roger Godin
Courtesy of the Minnesota
Wild’s State of Hockey Program
The
“With (a)
banner crowd of 12,951, largest of the season so far among western division
teams, looking on in shiny new Metropolitan Sports Center, the home team
captured its first victory and now stands with four points out of a possible
10.”
It may have seemed like a “banner crowd” to Pioneer
Press hockey writer Glenn Redmann, but to a couple of close participants,
North Stars’ defenseman Mike McMahon and Coach/General Manger Wren Blair, the
numbers didn’t appear overwhelming. “All I can remember was going on the ice
and thinking there were only 7 or 8,000 there and they seemed pretty quiet,”
recalled McMahon some 42 years after the event.
Wren echoes that view in his book The Bird:
“Even though we won our home opener, there were only 9,000 people in the
stands…the fans who attended our games were deathly silent.”
Blair would subsequently get himself into a media
brouhaha when he described Minnesota fans as “phlegmatic Swedes,” but they were
more than into the
Minnesotans were no strangers to the game after having
a culture with the sport that dated to the 1890s and it was only a matter of
time until that culture would extend to the game’s highest level once the
The expansion North Stars had opened the season on the
road with a 2-2 tie at St. Louis in a game in which they held the lead with a
minute to go. Road losses to Oakland and Los Angeles followed before tying
Pittsburgh and coming home to launch major league pro hockey against the
Oakland Seals.
The team was ripe for a good performance and they got
it on the best night possible. After a scoreless first period in which they
outshot their visitors 20-9, the man who would become the face of the franchise
in its earliest years, Bill Goldsworthy, got the squad’s first goal a little
bit beyond the eight minute mark of the second period.
Goldsworthy, a gifted gold scorer who would introduce
“The Goldy Shuffle,” a post-goal celebratory dance, into the state’s hockey
lexicon, was Blair’s best acquisition in the previous June’s expansion draft. Pioneer
Press, October 22, 1967:
“Minnesota finally broke the tie at 8:23 of the
second. (Andre) Boudrias, the helmeted first line center, picked up a loose
puck just inside his blue line and deftly fed up ice to Dave Balon.
“The North Stars No. 1 draft choice sped down the
right side with the rangy Goldworthy on his left and only one Seal defender was
between them. Balon hit Goldy perfectly and (Charlie) Hodge didn’t have a
chance on big Bill’s short chip just inside the circle.”
While Oakland would tie things up at the 16-minute
mark, the Stars got two third period tallies from Ray Cullen and Balon to
secure the 3-1 victory. They had put on a superb offensive performance in
outshooting the Seals 53-22 and only Hodge, a former Montreal Canadiens Stanley
Cup netminder, had kept the score respectable.
Minnesota went on to finish fourth in the new Western
Division, in which all the expansion teams had been placed, and advanced to the
Semifinal Round of the
A new chapter had been written in the State of Hockey’s
history.
By the way, you may have
noted the use of the word “real” in the first paragraph. That relates to the
fact that the
Let’s Play Hockey wants to publish your hockey stories. From tournament reports, to feature stories on teams, players or coaches, to opinion pieces on the game of hockey, Let’s Play Hockey accepts submissions from readers throughout the hockey community. To submit your hockey story and/or photo(s), e-mail us at editor@letsplayhockey.com.