Welcome to the second installment of Tuesday Trivia.
In our inaugural edition last week, the theme was pro basketball in Minnesota, with questions split between the state’s two NBA and two ABA teams.
This week we’ll switch to hockey, but all the questions will pertain to the Minnesota North Stars. At some point in the future, we’ll feature the Wild and also the short but wild existence of the WHA’s Fighting Saints.
If you have any ideas on what you’d like to see as a theme, let me know. Contact me at sportsdr44@hotmail.com. I did hear from a follower with a topic suggestion that will be used this summer.
Answers follow later in this post.
QUESTIONS
1: The North Stars came into the NHL with five other teams in the 1967-68 season as the league doubled in size from the ‘Original Six’ to 12 teams. Who were the other teams?
2: For the first two seasons, who was the North Stars’ Central Hockey League affiliate?
3: Who was the first player selected by the North Stars in the 1967 Expansion Draft?
4: Who was the first coach in the history of the North Stars?
5: What building was the home arena for the North Stars?
6: Who scored the first goal in team history?
7: What was the largest margin of victory in a game for the North Stars?
8: Who was the first North Star to score a goal in an All-Star Game?
9: Who holds the North Stars record for goals in one game?
10: Who is the career points leader for the North Stars?
ANSWERS
1: Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, St. Louis Blues, Los Angeles Kings, California Seals. The Seals would change their name three times while still playing in California as they would become the Oakland Seals, Bay Area Seals and California Golden Seals. The franchise relocated to Cleveland and became the Barons in 1976 and would merge with the North Stars in 1978. The Barons remain the last franchise in the four major North American sports leagues to cease operations.
2: The Memphis South Stars played two seasons in the CHL. In 1969 the team became the Iowa Stars, playing in Waterloo.
3: Cesare Maniago was drafted by the North Stars off the roster of the New York Rangers. He played nine seasons with Minnesota, compiling a record of 145-190-70. His goals against average was 3.18 and his save percentage was .906. Prior to joining the North Stars he played one season with the Toronto Maple Leafs, one with the Montreal Canadiens and two with the Rangers. He played his final two NHL seasons with the Vancouver Canucks.
4: Wren Blair as their first coach of the North Stars. He coached the entire 1967-68 season and then coached 41 and 32 games the next two seasons. In each of those campaigns, he left the bench to assume duties as the team’s general manager.
5: Metropolitan Sports Center, later shortened to Met Center, was the lone home arena for the North Stars during their time in Minnesota.
6: Bill Masterton scored on power play at 15:20 of the first period in the team’s first game ever at St. Louis on Oct. 11, 1967. The North Stars and Blues would tie 2-2.
7: The North Stars routed the Winnipeg Jets 15-2 before a crowd of 14,244 at Met Center on Nov. 11, 1982.
8: Claude Larose scored at 17:07 of the third period for the Western Conference in an eventual 3-3 tie with the East in the 1969 All-Star Game at the Montreal Forum. Assisting on Larose’s goal were North Star teammates Danny Grant and Danny O’Shea. Minnesota’s Moose Vasko also played in the game.
9: Tim Young became the second player in NHL history to score five goals on five shots for the North Stars in an 8-1 win over the New York Rangers on Jan. 15, 1979, at Madison Square Garden. The five goals remain the best single-game output by a player in the Minnesota/Dallas franchise.
10: Neal Broten had 249 goals and 547 assists for 796 points in 876 games over 13 seasons with Minnesota.