Mirage of Destiny

Minnesota has more youth, high school, college and pro hockey players than anywhere in the United States. For all that pedigree, and despite fifty years in the NHL, it still waits for a Stanley Cup championship team. This is the improbable, seemingly impossible tale of when the self-professed State of Hockey came closest to that title with the Minnesota North Stars. As war in the Middle East brewed and eventually boiled over, a soap opera played out during the 1990-91 season. New owner Norm Green stayed plans to move or fold the franchise, but a power play at the league's highest levels threatened to rip the roster in half and send its prospects to an expansion team in San Jose, California. Through most of the schedule, the team was among the worst in the NHL on the ice, dead last at the turnstiles, and rookie head coach and eventual Hall of Famer Bob Gainey grappled with a family crisis. But in February and March, the North Stars began to win a little more often - especially at home. Another future Hall of Famer, Mike Modano - in only his second season but fast becoming a matinee idol-began to show consistent glimpses of stardom. And a cast of characters ranging from better-than-average to journeymen played some of the best hockey of their lives behind a homegrown goalie who made everyone believe in fairy tales, for a while. In the playoffs they knocked off the two best teams in the league, then dethroned the defending champions. But just when the Cup was almost in their grasp, the magic vanished. They lost to Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Met Center, suffering in the sixth and final game the indignity of the most lopsided shutout of all time with the Cup on the line. This is the story of the team with the worst regular-season record in any of the major North American sports leagues to play for a championship and lose. (If not for the 1938 Chicago Black Hawks, you could strike those last two words.) Kevin Allenspach had a unique view for all of it. As a 21-year-old public relations intern, he was about as low as you could go among team personnel and still be on the inside. With the help of almost all those North Stars, including the coaches, front-office staff, and media with whom he worked, he has recreated this diary of that fateful season. But that's only half the story. Less than two years later, in 1993, frustrated at his attempts to get a new arena and embarrassed by accusations of sexual harassment, Green moved the team to Dallas - leaving Minnesota without the NHL for seven seasons. The second half of Mirage of Destiny relates the exhilaration, heartbreak, and the real lives of all those people who came so close to being part of something historic thirty years ago. In these pages you'll find perspective on more than hockey, and more than winning. This book is about life, and chasing our own goals.