NOTE: After positive responses to the newsletters on the Vikings, the Vikings Super Bowl appearances and this year’s Super Bowl, it’s apparent that more history-themed pieces should be planned. This comes as there may be a slight shift in the focus on what appears in this space. The plan is to write about some of those shifts sometime soon, but as we’ve been experiencing the last two-plus years, plans can change quickly. Anyway, here’s a piece on the North Stars-Bruins brawl that occurred 41 years ago yesterday. Ideally, I would have sent this out yesterday but plans change. The idea is to keep these pieces state and locally oriented, but I’m open to ideas. If you have anything you’d like to see, you can write me at sportsdr44@hotmail.com. In the meantime, enjoy!
This past Tuesday was the anniversary of what is universally regarded as the top moment in the history of hockey in this country.
On Feb. 22, 1980, the U.S. hockey team shocked the world in the “Miracle on Ice” game, a 4-3 upset win over the Soviet Red Army Team at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y.
A little over a year later there was a game that a lot of hockey purists would probably prefer to forget.
On Feb. 26, 1981, the Minnesota North Stars and Boston Bruins played at Boston Garden and set an NHL record for penalties. The record would stand until 2004.
A total of 12 players (seven North Stars and five Bruins) were ejected, all in the first period. Six players were suspended by the NHL following the game, with record fines given to both clubs.
The brawling started a mere seven seconds after the first puck drop.
There were 341 penalty minutes assessed in the opening period, which took more than 90 minutes of real time to complete.
Most of the ejections came in the major brawl that occurred with 11:02 remaining in the first period. The most penalized player was Boston’s Brad McCrimmon. He received a double major penalty and a total of 30 minutes.
For the game, the teams would combine for 392 minutes in penalties, breaking the record of 372 by Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings on March 11, 1979. Minnesota set a one-team record with 209, surpassing the Flyers' 188.
The 81 total penalties broke the record of 64 set by Philadelphia and Vancouver on Feb. 22, 1980, the same day as the “Miracle on Ice” game.
The 64 first-period penalties (33 on the North Stars) also broke records from the Philadelphia-Vancouver game.
Incidentally, the Bruins won 5-1 to continue their domination of the North Stars in Boston. The loss dropped Minnesota’s record in the building since entering the NHL in 1967 at 0-28-7.
Here’s the lengthy box score:
The teams looked as if they were headed toward a matchup in the opening round of the playoffs and North Stars officials wanted to send a message if that did come to fruition.
Coach Glen Sonmor and Stars General Manager Lou Nanne called a meeting at the team hotel on the afternoon of the infamous game.
“They had a big chalk board,” Brad Maxwell said. “And they were making matchups and they had all the Boston players and all the North Star players, and they had lines drawn between them and what they were trying to show us was that Boston relied so heavily on intimidation in those days.”
“I don’t know if Glen was a prophet and kind of knew what was going to happen a couple of months down the road or what, but he was trying to set the stage,” defenseman Gordie Roberts commented. “You can’t go out and play the same because it hasn’t worked before and to Glen’s credit, he knew something had to happen.
“It’s usually the tough guys that get into that kind of stuff but on that night, it was all the players,” Roberts said. “I was a middleweight and for guys like me and Bobby Smith, a fight happened because a guy gave an elbow, or a high stick and it just happened. But on this night, guys who were just regular players were looking to drop the gloves and to try to change the image of the North Stars, I guess.”
The North Stars did lose that game, but the stage was set for a remarkable playoff run, starting with a best-of-five first-round series with the Bruins.
The series started with two games at Boston Garden.
After 14 seasons and 35 games without ever winning in that historic building, Minnesota would post wins on consecutive nights.
In the opening game of the series, Jack Carlson scored at 11:55 of the third period to tie the game at 4-4. Steve Payne completed a hat trick at 3:34 of overtime and the North Stars had their first win ever at “The Gahden.”
Payne scored two more goals the next night, Al MacAdam also scored twice, and Tim Young had a five-point game on a goal and four assists in a 9-6 Minnesota win and the Stars were up 2-0 in the series.
After a day off, the teams played at Met Sports Center and Payne scored his sixth and seventh goals as Minnesota completed the three-game sweep with a 6-3 victory.
That sent the North Stars against Buffalo in the quarterfinals.
Minnesota again won the first two games of a series on the road, beating the Sabres 4-3 in overtime and 5-2. At home, the North Stars won 6-4 for a 3-0 series lead but Buffalo won Game Four 5-4 in OT to avoid the sweep.
Back at The Aud in Buffalo, Minnesota would take Game Five 4-3 to clinch the series.
In the semifinals, the North Stars won a Game One on the road for third straight series with a 4-1 win at Calgary. The Flames won Game Two 3-2, but the Minnesota won a pair of games at Met Center, 6-4 and 7-4. Calgary would keep the series going with a 3-1 win in Game Five, but the North Stars advanced to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in franchise history with a 5-3 Game Six win.
The defending champion New York Islanders reach the Final for the second straight year without much difficulty, beating Toronto 3-0, Edmonton 4-2 and the New York Rangers 4-0.
New York won the first two games by identical 6-3 scores on Long Island.
In Game Three at home, the North Stars led 3-1 at the first intermission, but the Islanders stormed back for a 7-5 win.
Minnesota stayed alive with a 4-2 win in Game Four, but New York returned home to close out the series with a 5-1 Game Five win for their second straight championship.
The Islanders would go on to win four straight Stanley Cups, beating Vancouver in 1982 and Vancouver in 1983 before losing to Edmonton in the 1983 Stanley Cup Final. That was the first of three straight titles for the Oilers.