“I still remember when it was over and we had all celebrated with each other on the ice, and we all headed for the locker room,” Shelstad said, this week. “Guys were all in such a hurry to shower and change and head for the bus, but I sat there without taking off any of my gear. As guys got dressed and left, they all were getting on me because I still had all the goalie equipment on, including my jersey.

“I was already aware that as a senior, when I pulled that Minnesota jersey off, it would be for the last time, and I would never wear it again. I didn’t want it to be over, so I didn’t want to pull it off.”

That will be among the stories exchanged by members of that 1974 championship team when they are celebrated Saturday night at what is now called “3M Arena at Mariucci,” across the street from Williams Arena, where the hockey games used to be held at one end of the huge basketball arena until the new hockey-only arena was built.

Herb Brooks had played in the old arena, too, under John Mariucci, who created the program’s lasting legacy, which was continued by Glen Sonmor, who hired Brooks as his assistant, and then turned the program over to Brooks for the 1972-73 season.

Brooks, of course, was best known for winning three NCAA titles in a six-year span before putting together the 1980 Miracle on Ice U.S. Olympic gold medal team that stunned the powerful Soviet Union and won gold at Lake Placid, N.Y.

But while that was, and remains, the biggest “miracle” in sports history, winning the 1974 NCAA championship might qualify as just as big a miracle, although on a smaller stage, and may not yet even be fully appreciated by his players.

Michigan, North Dakota, Denver, Colorado College and Michigan Tech were the clear dominating powers of college hockey in thoes days, along with a scattering of Eastern colleges such as Cornell, RPI, Boston University in some years. Minnesota was nowhere near the class and power of those teams, which were populated with highly skilled Canadian players who had played three or four years of major junior hockey in Canada.

Mariucci had the foresight to try to coax Minnesota high school players to follow the path that had taken him from Eveleth, Minn., to the university, and into the National Hockey League at a time when the NHL never even acknowledged the existence of college, let alone high school, prospects. So, when he became coach at Minnesota, Mariucci recruited and coerced top Minnesota high school players to attend Minnesota.

Consider that top teenagers all across Canada left home to play “Junior A” hockey in the Quebec, Ontario or Western Canada leagues. They could play until they turned 20 years old, and they would play 60 to 75 games a year with 20-minute periods. When they reached 20, they became eligible for the NHL draft, and sign contracts with pro teams. Those who didn’t get drafted might choose to attend a major U.S. college — such as Michigan Tech, Michigan, North Dakota, Denver or Colorado College.

At the same time, Minnesota kids played high school hockey, where their games were limited to 20 and were limited by ice time and state high school league rules of 12-minute periods. No other college tried to compete with only Minnesota high school players against the virtual pros of other top colleges in the WCHA, but Mariucci persisted and the Gophers were always very competitive, despite having no realistic chance at winning any NCAA titles.

Herb Brooks recruited high school, junior hockey players to Gophers
Brooks coached a newly formed Minnesota junior hockey team for one year, and realized quickly that he needed to add a few tougher players just to withstand the physical level of play, and when he went to take over the Minnesota program, which had finished in last place, he made sure that along with the top Minnesota high school prospects, he also recruited a few hard-nosed players from his junior team.

In their first season under Brooks, the Gophers finished about .500, which was a major upsurge. Then, in his second season, Brooks guided the Gophers through and into the league playoffs, and then to the NCAA final four (in those days), which would be held at Boston Garden — home of the Boston Bruins.

The adventure continued when Mike Polich intercepted the puck and scored a huge short-handed goal to quell a Boston University rally at the end of the game and push the Gophers into the final, where they played a fantastic final game and Shelstad stoned Michigan Tech — the collection of Minnesota high school kids who started their college careers at age 18 or 19 had beaten the Tech powerhouse with almost all its freshmen starting at age 21 after years of three times as many games of junior development.

Cast of 1974 Gophers
Running through all the names, brothers John and Rob Harris, brothers Bruce and Tim Carlson, brothers Tim and Mike Phippen, plus goaltender Shelstad, Perpich, Doug Falls, Brad Morrow, Joe Micheletti, Cal Cossalter, John Sheridan, Warren Miller, and Eric Lockwood filled out the roster. Micheletti was an all-state center at Hibbing who was converted to defense by Brooks and became an outstanding puck-moving defenseman who made it to the NHL. Lockwood was the only Canadian, a back-up goaltender who rarely played.

However many of them show up for the celebration of their 1974 championship this weekend is questionable, but there is no doubt that none of them retains the intense appreciation for wearing that jersey with the big block “M” on the chest as Shelstad does.

That is the heritage that follows the Golden Gophers in hockey, and while Brooks followed by coaching them to an NCAA runner-up finish in 1975, to their second NCAA title in 1976, and to their third NCAA title in 1979, he established the template for all future Gopher hockey teams.

In more recent years, Minnesota Duluth and the Gophers have added NCAA championship trophies, while St. Cloud State and Minnesota State Mankato have challenged for national prominence. But no college championships would have been possible is it hadn’t been for the first one, 50 years ago this spring.

The current team, after finishing NCAA runner-up last season, is battling to move into Big Ten contention, behind Michigan State and Wisconsin this year, which puts them in a quite similar position as Michigan, which is similarly loaded with top-end talent but hasn’t jelled yet. Fittingly, perhaps, those are the teams that will battle at Mariucci Arena this weekend, and while many of the current players might be looking at their experience as a stepping stone into pro hockey, they will be entertaining a dedicated group of players whose devotion and appreciation for being part of Gophers heritage will be reflected by the celebration in Suite 7.

The post Gophers Celebrate 1974 Champs appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

It was the end of the first season as Gophers head coach Herb Brooks, who had lifted the faltering program from a 10th-place, 7-21 season, to sixth-place with a 12-13-3 record. Minnesota lost 8-6 in the first game of the total-goal set. The team gathered for a group breakfast down a massive winding staircase at the Edgewater, for the obligatory scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and fried potatoes.

“I remember walking down that art deco staircase,” said Brad Shelstad, a junior goaltender who rode the bench that weekend while Brooks sent Doug Hastings into the nets, despite Shelstad’s better goals-against average and save percentage. “As we were all sitting at our table, there was another group gathered off to one side, and they looked sort of extra casual, with long hair. A couple of our guys made subtle comments about how they looked, but we went ahead with our breakfast.”

The Gophers season ended a few hours later, in a 6-4 playoff loss to finish the 1972-73 season 15-16-3 overall.

“Later on, I checked and found out that the other group in the room was a rock band called Pink Floyd, and they were performing their new album, ‘Dark Side of the Moon,’ in Madison that same weekend,” Shelstad said. “I ended up being a huge Pink Floyd fan, and fan of that album — which I still play all the time.”

That oddity, and that legendary album, might well have gone down as the highlight of Shelstad’s Gophers goaltending career, because there was nothing that spring that foretold what could possibly happen one season later, in the 1973-74 season. Nor could any fans of all the other Minnesota-based college hockey teams appreciate what was coming next.

The University of Minnesota Duluth had just moved up to expand into a Division I program. While St. Cloud State, Mankato State and Bemidji State were all comfortable playing at the Division II level, with reduced scholarship and financial requirements and their own minor-league network. While UMD was striving to reach Minnesota’s stature, the Gophers had never attained proper financial stature with, say, Michigan, which dominated the Big Ten and stood the best chance of competing with the national powers at Denver, North Dakota, Colorado College and the Eastern powers of Boston University, Cornell, RPI and others.

Michigan was the envy of John Mariucci at Minnesota because it enjoyed rivalries with Michigan State, Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan, and later Lake Superior State — five Division I teams compared to Minnesota’s one, or two.

Mariucci stubbornly promoted his homestate high school products, which were trickling out to other schools offering better scholarships. Still, with no junior hockey network to develop prospects up to age 20, Minnesota continued to recruit high school players entering as 18- or 19-year-old freshmen.

Against them, Michigan, Michigan Tech, North Dakota, Denver and Colorado College were all watching Canadian junior players age and develop up to age 20, and those who didn’t get drafted by NHL teams might consider coming to school as 21-year-old freshmen. So, Minnesota’s seniors were sometimes younger than the freshmen brought in post-junior by the other Western college powers.

So, Minnesota had never won an NCAA championship. How could they? When Brooks took over the Gophers program, he was determined to carry on Mariucci’s beliefs and concepts, and while the other in-state college programs considered the Gophers their primary adversary and rival, there was no real indication that something huge was looming on the horizon to attain national championship stature.

In fact, as Shelstad recalled, nothing looked more alluring than “The Dark Side of the Moon” to those young Gophers in 1972-73.

Herb Brooks: The miracle man
In the fall of 1973, the Gophers started 0-4-1, losing to UMD, twice to Wisconsin, tying and losing to Michigan. But then, the Brooks magic set in.

His 23-man roster started to click. Shelstad was No. 1 in goal, with Bill Moen and Eric Lockwood backing up. On defense, Brooks had Brad Morrow, Les Auge, John Perpich, Doug Falls and a giant named Dick Spannbauer. But Brooks wanted more versatility, so he took Joe Micheletti, a young center who had fled Hibbing to the state high school championship, and he converted him to defense. Smart, smooth and good with the puck, Micheletti had an outstanding season. Brooks took a similar path with David Christian on his 1980 Miracle on Ice Olympic team.

Up front, a clever center with a quick shot named John Sheridan was joined by Mike Polich, another Hibbing spark plug, and Tom Vannelli, a crafty center from St. Paul Academy, plus wingers Warren Miller, Buzzy Schneider, John Matschke, Cal Cossalter, Tom Dahlheim, Roseau brothers John and Robby Harris, Edina brothers Bruce and Tim Carlson, Roseville brothers Pat and Mike Phippen. A completely diverse group of forwards — possibly none of whom might have invited notice had they been playing junior hockey, but who all accepted partial scholarships to be a part of the Golden Gophers.

The Gophers gained momentum through the tough WCHA season, although they still had trouble with certain teams. They lost a midseason series at Duluth, split a series with Denver and skated to a pair of ties at Wisconsin. In their final series of the regular season, the Gophers made the trip to Houghton, Mich., where John MacInnes’ Huskies swept the Gophers. That left Minnesota sharing the WCHA championship though still technically second in the conference.

It didn’t matter though, because Minnesota was at home in Williams Arena to two-game, total-goal series against Michigan, which the Gophers swept 5-1 and 5-4. That put the Gophers up against Denver, and the teams tied the first game.

“John Harris backhanded in a big goal for us,” Shelstad said.

Then the Gophers won 2-1 to send them to the NCAA Final Four (as it was known in those days) at Boston Garden.

Gophers reach NCAA Final Four
In the home of the Boston Bruins, the Gophers jumped out ahead of Boston University, but coach Jackie Parker’s Terriersrallied in the third period against Shelstad and the Gophers, closing the deficit to set the stage for the most dramatic single goal in Gophers hockey history.

Having tied the game 4-4, Boston went on the power play when Spannbauer was penalized with a minute to go in regulation. It appeared that the Garden rink was tilted toward Shelstad and the Gophers goal, and it seemed inevitable that the Terriers were going to score again and steal the national championship.

But while killing the penalty through the closing half-minute, Polich stole the puck in the neutral zone and raced into the B0ston zone. Terriars goaltender Ed Walsh, who coincidentally later played with Polich on Montreal’s top farm team where the two were roommates, later told Polich that as he skated in toward the goal, Walsh knew he had an open winger on the far side, and he stole a millisecond glance to see where the winger was. In that instant, when he looked back, he didn’t see any puck.

Polich had cut loose with a quick and deadly shot in that moment, and the puck sailed past Walsh and into the goal for a shorthanded goal to win the game 5-4 with 13 seconds remaining in regulation.

The joy of victory, the great relief at surviving — all the possible emotions — spilled over as the Gophers celebrated. But they still had a huge obstacle awaiting in the defending champion Michigan Tech Huskies.

“We had no options,” said Shelstad. “It was our last game as Gophers. I still remember Bill Steele. I don’t know if he ever went into motivational speaking, but he should have, because he sure motivated me! As we were warming up in Boston Garden, he skated down to our end and came up next to me and said something like, ‘It’s all over now, buddy, because we’re going to fill the net.’ It got to me, and I thought, ‘You little…who do you think you are?’”

The Gophers won its first NCAA championship in Minnesota history by a 4-2 score, outshooting Michigan Tech 39-24.

In the 1975 NCAA championship game a year later, Brooks and his Gophers lost to Michigan Tech. But the teams met again in the 1976 title game in Denver, with the Gophers winning that one. So, after having never won a national title in its history, Minnesota suddenly won two-out-of-three during Brooks’ first three years as head coach.

Brooks put together one more championship team, winning the 1979 NCAA title, to give him three championships in his seven years at Minnesota. That was all before he left to create the 1980 gold-medal-winning Olympic team, loaded Minnesota players.

Now, 50 years later, Minnesota is trying to fight off the challenges from five other Division I programs in Minnesota, with UMD, St. Cloud State, Minnesota State Mankato, Bemidji State and St. Thomas all battling for national prominence. But while gazing into the future, it might be the ideal time to pause for a look back at the proud heritage that Mariucci, Glen Sonmor and Brooks created out of the void of no NCAA titles in Minnesota.

The post Flashback: 1st Gophers NCAA Titles appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.