On April 4, 1991, the Minnesota North Stars kicked off one of the most surprising playoff runs in National Hockey League (NHL) history. The North Stars had barely made it to the postseason, earning the final playoff spot in the league’s Norris Division during the final week of the regular season. Just one of the 16 playoff teams that spring posted a worse record than the denizens of Bloomington’s Met Center.
In the first round, the North Stars faced the Norris Division champion Chicago Blackhawks in a best-of-seven series, which began that Thursday night at Chicago Stadium. The Blackhawks boasted the league’s best regular season record, earning them the President’s Trophy.
The North Stars found a way to hang in game one against the Blackhawks, relying on stout goaltending from Grand Rapids, Minnesota, native Jon Casey; robust effort on the defensive end; and opportunistic scoring by the team’s top lines. In overtime, the North Stars took advantage of a powerplay early in the extra session. Defenseman Mark Tinordi fired a slapshot toward Chicago goalie Ed Belfour, which veteran leftwinger Brian Propp secured on the rebound. Propp put the puck past Belfour for the game winner.
“I was a little older and I knew what a difference it was to get that first win,” says Propp, a veteran of four previous Stanley Cup finals with the Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins.
Minnesota’s upset victory in game one set the tone for the series and for an unforgettable spring for hockey fans in Minnesota. The North Stars would go on to upset Chicago, the St. Louis Blues, and Edmonton Oilers in best-of-seven series to secure Minnesota’s second-ever appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals. Minnesota won just 27 of their 80 regular season games in 1990-1991. Never before had a team with such a poor regular season record advanced to play for a championship in major North American sports.
The long-ago spring nights that formed the architecture of Minnesota’s Stanley Cup run still figure prominently in the memories of the athletes and fans that experienced them. Even though the North Stars left the Twin Cities decades ago, the mythology of Minnesota’s unexpected eight-week postseason run persists as part of the state’s hockey lore.
“The players all came together. It was a good group of guys. It was one of the closest teams that I was a part of,” says defenseman Jim Johnson, who came to Minnesota in a December 1990 trade. “Everybody accepted a role, and everybody fulfilled that role. We played for one another,” he continues.
Courtesy of Jim Johnson
The North Stars’ regular season struggles weren’t the only reason their 1991 run to the Cup Finals was so surprising. In a broader sense, the franchise was hanging on by a thread in Minnesota. Longtime owners George and Gordon Gund threatened in 1990 to move the franchise to the West Coast, citing lagging attendance and an aging home arena. Rather than allowing the Gund brothers to relocate the franchise, the NHL awarded them an expansion team, which became the San Jose Sharks. The Gunds then sold the North Stars to a consortium of buyers, which included Norm Green, who later became the majority owner of the club. Adding insult to injury, the NHL allowed the new Sharks franchise to hold an expansion draft consisting of talent from the North Stars franchise. The league added to this convoluted compromise by allowing the North Stars to select players from a league-wide talent dispersal draft. The entire ownership soap opera left the North Stars organization a demoralized mess by the start of the 1990-1991 season.
The Met Center was more than half-empty for the Stars’ home opener in October 1990. The team’s sluggish performance didn’t help matters in the stands. Minnesota won just 4 of its first 23 games. Owner Norm Green tried to buoy attendance by offering cash giveaways at select home dates.
“I remember my first game there. They were only like 5,000 fans. I was used to packed houses,” Propp says, having spent the first decade of his career in rabid NHL markets Philadelphia and Boston.
“Minnesota was a really good hockey state. Everybody loved the game of hockey, but I don’t think we were the priority. The Minnesota Golden Gophers were. Once we started winning in the playoffs, everybody joined in,” center Dave Gagner says. Gagner was the leading scorer on the 1990-1991 Minnesota North Stars.
Since their establishment during the NHL’s 1967 expansion, the North Stars had not become one of the league’s storied franchises. They were, at best, an also-ran. Aside from a string of successful seasons in the early 1980s (the best of which was Minnesota’s previous appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals in 1981, which they lost to the New York Islanders), the North Stars had, more often than not, struggled in the standings. In many Minnesota hearts, the North Stars were an afterthought when compared to their traditional loves of high school and college hockey.
The endangered state of the North Stars franchise was just as evident to their most ardent fans.
Keith Baker grew up in Maple Grove and attended North Stars games frequently in high school and college, taking advantage of student rush tickets, which became available a few hours before the puck dropped for just $10.
“We usually got there about 4:30 and we were the only ones in the place,” Baker says of he and his friends. By the fall of 1990, Baker thought the North Stars were on their way out of town.
Lance Smith grew up in Minneapolis’ northern suburbs. The Gophers were his first love. He went to games with his grandfather, who was on the University of Minnesota’s police force.
“When he had security detail for the hockey games, he got me a pass,” Smith says. As Smith got older, he started taking the bus down to Bloomington to go sit in the cheap seats at North Stars games.
“I took Route 10 along Central Avenue to get downtown. Then I transferred downtown to route 42M for the Met Center,” Smith adds.
Courtesy of Chris Dykstra
“The sight lines were amazing. It didn’t matter whether you were center ice or way up in the upper deck. Every seat at the Met Center was awesome. My favorite seat was the back row of the lower bowl corner. I always like the corners because I think you can see the entire play develop rather than from the sides,” Smith says.
By fall 1990, Smith was serving in the U.S. Navy but keeping close tabs on the ongoings at the Met Center.
“You didn’t even know if the team was going to be in Minnesota. How do you sell season tickets?” Smith asks.
Amid the despair, positive changes were afoot in the North Stars’ front office. The team hired longtime Flyers general manager Bobby Clarke as their new GM. Clarke was a hockey legend by his mid-twenties, captaining the “Broad Street Bullies” to consecutive Stanley Cup victories in 1974 and 1975. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1987, the same year that a Flyers team that he helped create reached the finals for the second time in three years. Not long after becoming GM, Clarke brought in one of his favorites from Philadelphia, Brian Propp, to add veteran leadership, offensive prowess, and old-school toughness to Minnesota’s roster.
Clarke hired Canadiens legend Bob Gainey as the team’s head coach. Gainey was a key component in the Canadiens’ dynasty of the 1970s and would be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1992. Montreal coach Scotty Bowman regarded Gainey as an extension of himself on the ice. Gainey excelled in all aspects of the game and is widely regarded as one of the greatest defensive forwards in league history. No less an authority than Anatoly Tarasov, the father of Soviet hockey, regarded Gainey as the best all-around player in the world during the 1970s.
Calm and controlled, Gainey preached fundamentally sound, defensively stout hockey. Despite the team’s early season struggles, Gainey doubled down on instilling a coherent system of play. The North Stars supported emerging goalie Jon Casey with smart but physical defense. Minnesota finished 10th best in the league in goals allowed that season. On offense, the team developed an aggressive and effective powerplay which made the most of man advantages.
“Bob Gainey had a good way of compartmentalizing the game. Powerplay, penalty kill, five on five. We all took on a role in those aspects. We found a formula within our own group,” Gagner says.
Clarke bolstered Minnesota’s defense in December by acquiring backend stalwarts Jim Johnson and Chris Dahlquist from Pittsburgh.
“I think that trade changed the outlook of our team. The identity of our team started to take shape in the second half. We were under the radar. Nobody in the league really respected us,” Gagner says.
After an atrocious late 1990, the North Stars caught fire in January 1991, boasting one of the league’s best records for the remainder of the regular season. The team was particularly strong at home, losing just twice at the Met Center after Jan. 10.
“Bob Gainey had us playing a style where we believed we could beat anybody if we played to our strengths,” Johnson says.
Courtesy of Chris Dawson
“We had an internal belief but nobody else in the league knew what was going on,” Gagner says. “Our power play was really starting to click. We had a better defensive approach to the game and Jon Casey was playing well in net. We had a lot of confidence going into the playoffs.”
Center Marc Bureau came to Minnesota with nine games left in the 1990-1991 regular season.
“I kept going up and down in Calgary,” says Bureau, who starred for the Flames’ minor league affiliate in Salt Lake City. At the time, Calgary had a talented roster still filled with players from their 1989 Stanley Cup championship team. Bureau asked for a trade so that he could play at the NHL level. Calgary GM Cliff Fletcher acquiesced, sending Bureau to a North Stars team still in danger of missing the playoffs. Bureau played a major role for Minnesota down the stretch and remained in the NHL for the next 12 seasons.
“Everybody was on the same page. The goal was making the playoffs,” Bureau says. “During the year, everyone was telling me there was nobody in the stands there. When we made it to the playoffs, everybody went crazy. Fans would be there to meet us at the airport.”
As the North Stars entered the NHL’s “second season,” the fans knew something was different too.
“I went early in the season, and the place was empty. Then, I went to a game late in the season and the vibe was so different. The building was so electric, and it seemed like the team couldn’t lose,” Jason Karonsky says. Karonsky grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula but traveled frequently to the Twin Cities to play hockey. His family supported the North Stars and went to a handful of games each season at the Met Center.
In 1993, Karonsky’s picture appeared in the Pioneer Press in the paper’s coverage of the Stars’ final home game. He is standing next to his father and crying.
After the North Stars upset Chicago in game one, the fans in Minnesota and the top-seeded Blackhawks took simultaneous notice. On April 4, 1991, thousands of tickets remained for games three and four of the series, which were to be held at the Met Center. By April 6, they were all sold out. Chicago, too, got back on their game. They won games two and three of the series before running into a Minnesota-born brick wall named Jon Casey. In Game four, Casey shut down the Blackhawks’ high-powered offense, leading Minnesota to a 3-1 victory which evened the series.
Small and athletic, Casey asserted himself as a solid NHL starting goalie during the late 1980s. Despite starting in goal for two national championship teams at the University of North Dakota, Casey had gone undrafted out of college. The league’s cognoscenti perceived him as too small to stand up to the rigors of an NHL season. Casey proved them wrong repeatedly, never more so than in the 1991 NHL playoffs.
“Jon [Casey] was unbelievable for us. He was outstanding for us throughout,” Bureau says.
The series returned to Chicago for game five, which is when Minnesota’s powerplay took control of the series. The North Stars scored on five of their 12 powerplay opportunities and embarrassed the Blackhawks, 6-0. For the series, Minnesota scored a record 15 powerplay goals.
“Chicago didn’t really play a smart series against us. They took a lot of penalties,” Gagner says.
Courtesy of Picryl
“We always had a good powerplay and we took advantage of that against Chicago,” Propp says. Propp and Gagner were two of the five North Stars to score multiple powerplay goals in the Chicago series along with stalwarts Brian Bellows and Bobby Smith and budding superstar Mike Modano.
“It didn’t really matter if you had a letter on you or not. We had a lot of leaders in that room. Everybody leads by example in a different way. We had a good veteran team,” Johnson comments.
Minnesota defeated Chicago 3-1 in game six to finish off the series. The North Stars advanced to the Norris Division finals while the Blackhawks became the first team in 20 years to lose in the opening round after posting the NHL’s best regular season record.
“We took a hold of that series and never let them off the mat,” Johnson says.
Minnesota applied the same formula of rugged defense and powerplay opportunism to their Norris Division Finals series against the St. Louis Blues, who boasted not only the league’s second best record that season but also two of its leading scorers, Brett Hull and Adam Oates.
The North Stars dispatched the Blues in six games, taking game one in St. Louis and netting nine more powerplay goals over the course of the series. Minnesota won all three games at the Met Center to continue their unbeatable ways at home. Brett Hull and Adam Oates were stymied all series, harassed by the likes of Tinordi, Gaetan Duchense, and Stewart Gavin.
Minnesota’s checking line, which included veterans Shane Churla, Basil McRae, and newcomer Marc Bureau, brought great force to bear against their Blues counterparts. Bureau would score the first three goals of his NHL career during the 1991 postseason.
“We were playing physically and setting the tempo for the rest of the team. I was playing my role and really happy to be there,” Bureau says.
“Our power play was lethal. If they took liberties against us, we scored. Almost at ease with our power play,” Johnson adds.
“We went into games pretty certain that we were going to win after a while. Especially at home,” Gagner says.
As the North Stars continued to advance in the postseason, the atmosphere in Bloomington got ever more raucous.
“The fans were outstanding. They came to life at the old Met Center. I remember driving into those games in the playoffs, and it was sold out. Crowds and tailgating and people hanging around. People enjoying the festivities and people enjoying Minnesota North Stars hockey,” Johnson remembers, taking particular pride in it as a native Minnesotan.
The North Stars faced the Edmonton Oilers in the Campbell Conference Finals, competing for a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals. Edmonton was the team of the 1980s, winning five Stanley Cups between 1984 and 1990. Even after trading the legendary Wayne Gretzky to Los Angeles, the Oilers won another title, hoisting the cup at the end of the previous season, 1990.
The North Stars grinded their way to three goals in Game 1 in Edmonton while Jon Casey turned way 27 of the Oilers’ 28 shots. The North Stars kicked off the series with a 3-1 road victory over the defending champs.
Brian Propp remembers not only how remarkably Casey played against Edmonton, but the simultaneous stability and tenacity the team’s skaters showed against the battle-tested Edmonton club.
“We had balance between talented players and tough guys,” Propp says.
Edmonton pummeled Minnesota in game two but the North Stars wreaked havoc on the Oilers in games three and four, blowing out the defending champions in consecutive contests at the Met Center.
Down three games to one, Edmonton put up a hellacious fight in game five at home, but Minnesota found a way to best the Oilers once again. Thirty-three-year-old Bobby Smith, the North Stars’ oldest player, scored an early third period goal to give Minnesota a 3-2 advantage. The North Stars hung on for the victory, earning them the Campbell Conference Championship and the franchise’s second ever trip to the Stanley Cup Finals. The Stars faced the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Finals, led by Mario Lemieux, widely regarded by then as the league’s top player.
“Bobby Smith was one of our best leaders. He’s an intelligent guy that is able to talk about winning in a meaningful way,” Gagner says.
“Going into Edmonton, they had home ice, and they were the defending Stanley Cup champions. To win the Clarence Campbell trophy in Edmonton was pretty special,” Johnson adds.
As the team readied for the Stanley Cup Finals, North Stars fans, both near and far, found a way to embrace the moment.
“I remember trying so hard to get tickets to the playoffs. Back then you had to call in or go in person. Lines were busy for hours, so I finally jumped in the car and by the time I got there everything was sold out. It was such a disappointment,” says Chris Dykstra, who was living in Rosemount at the time.
“It was definitely the talk of the town. Everybody was on the bandwagon. Everybody was feeling good about Minnesota hockey,” says Keith Baker.
“I remember having my buddies over to watch the games on pay per view. It’s amazing that even the finals games were not televised even in 1991,” says Jake Ingebrigston of Maple Grove. The most evident indignity of the North Stars’ 1991 playoff run was that fans in the Twin Cities could not access the home playoff games on cable television. Norm Green feared that fans would stay home if the games were readily available to television viewers. Rather than allowing the team’s regular season broadcaster, Midwest Sports Channel, to carry the games, Green charged fans $9.95 for games in the first and second rounds. The Campbell Conference Finals and the Stanley Cup games cost $12.95 per game. Many a Minnesotan gathered around televisions other than their own to watch the games.
Robert Lea grew up in Edina but was attending college at the University of Montana during the ’91 Cup Finals.
“All the Minnesotans gathered at a bar called the Press Box in Missoula where we watched all the games. We basically took over the place,” Lea says.
Lance Smith was stationed at Naval Base Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia. For game one of the Stanley Cup Finals, the enlisted men’s club set up two sets of bleachers near their big screen TV—one decorated in Pittsburgh Penguins colors and the other in Minnesota North Stars colors.
“There was a good number of Pittsburgh fans. There were three of us on the North Stars side,” Smith says. “I was wearing my old Bobby Smith jersey. When Minnesota won game one, I think I was louder than the entire contingency of Pittsburgh fans,” he continues.
“Hockey is part of the fabric of life in Minnesota while it’s an activity in New England,” says Matthew Dudley, who grew up in St. Paul before heading east to play hockey at Holy Cross in Massachusetts. During the ’91 playoffs, he and a Holy Cross teammate from the St. Louis area developed a drinking game to go with the series. It devolved quickly, as did the series for the St. Louis Blues.
A bus load of North Stars fans from Thunder Bay, Ontario came down for the Stanley Cup Finals, traveling seven hours to see the team play in person. These weren’t fair weather fans. A bus company in Thunder Bay had been bringing fans down to Bloomington since the early 1970s to see North Stars games several times each season.
Courtesy of Picryl
The North Stars won game one of the Stanley Cup Finals, surprising Pittsburgh 5-4 on their home ice. Veteran leaders led the way in game one as Neal Broten tied the game for Minnesota late in the second period and Bobby Smith put home the game winner early in the third. Pittsburgh would take game two of the series before Minnesota pounced on the Penguins at the Met Center in game three, 3-1. A back injury prevented Lemieux from playing in game three and threatened to shut him down for the remainder of the series.
“Super Mario” would make a miraculous return in game four and turn the series on its head. The Penguins would win three consecutive games and the series, thanks in large part to Lemieux, who earned the Conn Smythe Trophy as the postseason’s most valuable player.
“The Penguins had a really dangerous team offensively and they were able to capitalize on our mistakes,” Gagner says.
“They took it and ran with it. Mario stepped up in game four. He went on a tear, and he took control of the series. We could never get the momentum back,” Johnson recalls.
Reflecting back, players and fans alike recognize what special moments they all enjoyed that spring.
“It was a really great two months that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. It was a special time with a great group of guys,” Gagner says. Minnesota sports had a uniquely momentous 1991 and early 1992 as the Twins won their second World Series that fall and the Metrodome hosted Super Bowl XXVI in January 1992.
“Even though we lost afterward, everybody was proud of our Stars for what they did. We definitely were the underdog,” Baker says.
The good times didn’t last for the North Stars. Cash strapped owner Norm Green pursued greener pastures and made it clear that he didn’t think of Minnesota as the permanent home of the North Stars franchise. Before the 1991-1992 season, he swapped out the Met Center’s North Stars colored seats with all red seats that looked straight out of a high school assembly. The classic North Stars’ “N” logo disappeared as well, replaced with the more generic “Stars” design.
“It was pretty evident the first day of the next season. Opening night, I don’t think we drew 7,000 fans. After going to the Stanley Cup finals. I think the writing was on the wall,” Gagner says.
The North Stars would play their last game in Minnesota on April 15, 1993, before relocating to Dallas and abbreviating their name to “Stars.”
Lance Smith watched the North Stars’ last home game on TV at his naval base.
“Later that night they showed the padlocks going on the doors at the Met Center. It just felt like the end of something,” Smith says.
The National Hockey League would return to the Twin Cities with the establishment of the Minnesota Wild in 2000. The Wild have enjoyed consistent box office success at St. Paul’s Grand Casino Arena (formerly Xcel Energy Center) even as their on-ice performance has been up and down. While the Wild have created many memories of their own for Minnesota sports fans, the memories of the North Stars’ run in the spring of ’91 continue to form an important part of the state’s hockey mythology.
