Greatest championship moments in the Twin Cities

Having Super Bowl LII in the Twin Cities is merely an appetizer for the State of Hockey in 2018. The Women’s and Men’s Frozen Fours at Minneapolis’ Ridder Arena and St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center, respectively, shall follow.

All three events must meet a lofty standard to jut out in the locality’s sports annals. The NCAA, IIHF and NHL have all created illustrious memories for home, visiting and neutral spectators alike in the area.

One NHL franchise clinched its first championship in the Twin Cities suburb of Bloomington. The second-most recognizable chapter of the University of Minnesota won its first women’s national title in Minneapolis. Its men’s program achieved the same feat in St. Paul. The flagship Gophers have combined for another three titles in four final appearances.

The more recent of the two overtime title games in NCAA women’s tournament history happened at Ridder. Two of the last three on the men’s side have been at Xcel. A Minnesota-based program prevailed in all three cases.

And then there has been one IIHF World Championship and one bona fide neutral-site NCAA final. In ascending order of overall drama and implications of the outcome, these moments rank as follows.

10. 1991 Stanley Cup Final
As anticlimactic as it was, Minnesota has witnessed one Stanley Cup clincher. The upset-minded North Stars pushed Pittsburgh to Game 6 before the top dog rolled, 8-0, at Bloomington’s Met Center.

Besides the presence of the incomparable chalice, the event convened several meaningful personnel. Former Gopher and Miracle on Ice alumnus Neal Broten captained the home team. His former Olympic assistant coach, Craig Patrick, was the Penguins general manager.

The GM had once played for the WHA’s Minnesota Fighting Saints in St. Paul. His head coach in Pittsburgh: Minneapolis native and Wisconsin hockey legend “Badger” Bob Johnson.

9. 2013 Women’s Frozen Four
The first Division I women’s hockey team to cement a perfect season did so in its own digs.

After escaping their semifinal against Boston College in overtime,  3-2, the Gophers engaged Boston University at Ridder Arena. Patty Kazmaier recipient Amanda Kessel appropriately piloted their 43rd win in as many tries.

Kessel’s shorthanded assist and empty-net goal bookended her four-point outing in a 6-3 barn-burner. But BU’s own world-class striker, Marie-Philip Poulin, kept things compelling with a two-point performance.

8. 2006 Women’s Frozen Four
The first national tournament edition of the Wisconsin-Minnesota rivalry had the Gophers gunning for a championship three-peat at Mariucci Arena. But Badgers bench boss Mark Johnson — son of Bob — and his capstone class kickstarted a new dynasty.

Like his father, Johnson was born in Minneapolis, but has built his legacy in Madison. Back home, and at the arena named after Dad’s college coach, Johnson oversaw back-to-back shutouts. His goaltender, Jessie Vetter, blanked St. Lawrence in the semifinal and Minnesota in the final, only her 12th and 13th career games.

7. 2001 Women’s Frozen Four
The Twin Cities hosted the first NCAA-sanctioned championship in women’s hockey history. The final upshot signaled a new balance of power under the new banner in the new millennium.

In the previous century, longer-tenured Eastern-based schools epitomized excellence in the sport. But by the first official Frozen Four, Minnesota-Duluth, led by 1998 Canadian Olympic coach Shannon Miller, was poised to seize the throne.

The Bulldogs entered an otherwise all-ECAC field as the No. 2 seed. After dispatching Harvard, 6-3, they vanquished St. Lawrence — who had upset the top-dog Dartmouth — 4-2.

6. 2001 Women’s World Championship
The otherworldly Cammi Granato and Gopher Krissy Wendell were Team USA’s most formidable assets in this 2002 Olympics preview. Entering the final at Mariucci Arena, Granato boasted a tournament-best 13 points. Wendell was a close second with 11, and tied Canada’s Kelly Bechard atop the assist leaderboard.

Seeking their seventh straight WWC gold medal, the visitors all but stifled the Americans’ one-two punch. They kept Granato scoreless in the title tilt while restricting Wendell to a single assist.

That helper cut a 3-1 Canadian lead in half with 1:19 remaining in regulation. But 20 seconds later, a tripping penalty to Karen Bye effectively let the visitors run out the final minute. As it happened, Canada would eke out Olympic gold over the U.S. by the same 3-2 score 10 months later.

Besides Wendell, the silver medalists bore local flavor in Alana Blahoski, Winny Brodt, Natalie Darwitz, Annamarie Holmes and Jenny Potter.

5. 2002 Men’s Frozen Four
The Gophers were nursing a 23-year championship drought when the two-year-old Xcel Energy Center hosted its first Frozen Four. Meanwhile, it had been 30 years since any men’s program had won in their own state. (BU had that distinction, prevailing at the Boston Garden in 1972.)

With Maine safeguarding a 3-2 lead, both gaps were 53 seconds away from an extension. The Black Bears had taken their first edge of the seesaw match with 4:33 to spare.

But with an extra attacker in play, Matt Koalska drew a last-minute knot for Minnesota. Future Northern Michigan coach Grant Potulny followed up with the clincher in overtime.

4. 2011 Men’s Frozen Four
What is more memorable than an overtime goal that ends a storied program’s championship drought? Try an overtime goal that gives a storied program its first national title altogether.

Entering the Wild’s mansion’s second Frozen Four, the UMD men had produced Hall of Famers like Brett Hull. They had fostered a Miracle on Ice gold medalist in Mark Pavelich. Their female counterparts had corralled five of the first 10 women’s NCAA titles.

But their only previous journey to a national final of their own had ended in a 5-4 overtime heartbreaker via Bowling Green in 1984. Down the interstate, a new generation gave Duluth a do-over against a Michigan team seeking its record 10th title.

A seesaw tilt saw the Wolverines strike first, then draw a 2-2 knot a mere 8:15 after the Bulldogs took their first lead. But after a scoreless third period, Duluth’s Kyle Schmidt hit the twine at 3:22 of the bonus round.

3. 1989 Men’s Frozen Four
The Gophers’ hex that began at the end of the Herb Brooks era almost ended at the 10-year mark. Doug Woog led his pupils into the St. Paul Civic Center, where they topped Maine, 7-4, in the semifinal.

A hungry Harvard program — runners-up in 1983 and 1986 — met the local favorites after repressing Michigan State, 6-3. The Crimson opened a pair of leads, but surrendered a potentially momentous 3-3 equalizer with 3:26 left in regulation.

But unlike Maine 13 years later, Bill Cleary’s pupils verified their recovery and caught the first break in sudden death. In the stanza’s sixth minute, junior Ed Krayer slipped the decider through dynamic Minnesota netminder Robb Stauber. The 4-3 victory delivered the first (and still only) NCAA hockey championship trophy to reside in Cambridge.

2. 2010 Women’s Frozen Four
What’s more memorable than overtime with a championship at stake? Try a winner-take-all tilt that extends to a second, let alone third overtime.

The first of what will soon be four NCAA finals at Ridder Arena witnessed the longest championship game yet. When UMD and Cornell retained a 2-2 deadlock through 4:20 of double-OT, their showdown surpassed that of the 2003 Bulldogs and Harvard.

This one would still require another 35 minutes and six seconds of play, plus one more Zamboni shift in between. Yet another intermission was 34 seconds away when Duluth’s Jessica Wong finally ended it.

Big Red goaltender Amanda Mazzotta’s consolation prize was a single-game tournament record of 61 saves. Her victorious freshman counterpart Jennifer Harss placed second under that heading with 49 blocks.

1. 1991 Men’s Frozen Four
Among NCAA men’s finals, only UMD’s 1984 quadruple-overtime loss was longer than 1991. The Civic Center had the privilege of hosting BU and Northern Michigan on that occasion.

The Terriers sculpted a 3-0 lead in the opening frame. The Wildcats retorted with five unanswered strikes in the second. A back-and-forth third drew a 7-7 deadlock, with BU bagging the last three goals, including David Sacco’s equalizer a mere 33 seconds ahead of the buzzer.

Yet in the subsequent overtime, the contesting defenses restored order. All was quiet on both fronts for one bonus period, then another.

In the second minute of the sixth stanza, a back-and-forth play saw BU overcommit to Mark Beaufait. The Wildcats forward fed teammate Daryl Plandowski, who fed a gaping goal-mouth from the center alley.

Like Harvard two years prior and UMD 20 years later, NMU had won its first title in Minnesota’s capital. And it had three State of Hockey products on that journey, including St. Paul native Steve Woog.