On April 10, 2003 — exactly 20 years ago this coming Monday — the State of Hockey was in a state of bliss.
20 years ago: An amazing run of hockey, winning in Minnesota
The Gophers' last NCAA men's hockey title overlapped with the Wild's only sustained playoff run 20 years ago. Will both teams deliver again and make 2023 another great sports year?
April 4, 2023 at 7:45PM
The Gophers men's hockey team defeated Michigan 3-2 in overtime in the Frozen Four semifinals. On the same date, the Wild upended the heavily favored Colorado Avalanche in Game 1 of their first NHL playoff series.
Two nights later, the Gophers won it all, capping back-to-back NCAA titles with a 5-1 win over New Hampshire. The Wild lost to Colorado, but they were just making things a little more challenging for themselves.
The Wild would fall behind in the series three games to one before winning the final three by identical 3-2 scores — the last two in overtime — to take the series. They repeated that pattern against Vancouver, and suddenly they were in the Western Conference Finals.
We've had hockey moments since then, to be sure. But the Gophers haven't won a national title since, nor have the Wild (who managed just one goal in that conference finals series against Anaheim) made it back that far in the playoffs.
As I talked about on Tuesday's Daily Delivery podcast, it was a golden time in local sports — one that transcended just hockey.
The Timberwolves went 51-31 in the 2002-03 season and took a 2-1 lead on the Lakers in a playoff series that overlapped with the Wild's run. Though the Wolves lost in six games, it laid the groundwork for a Western Conference finals trip the next year.
The Gophers' championship and the dueling Wild and Wolves playoff series distracted us from a Twins team that won the division in 2002 but had two separate six-game losing streaks in April 2003. The Twins eventually poured it on with a 46-23 record after the break to win their second of three straight AL Central titles.
The Vikings started 6-0 that season. Everything was great.
Of course ... the Wolves haven't won a playoff series since 2004. The Twins haven't won a playoff GAME since 2004. The Vikings collapsed and missed the playoffs in 2003. The Wild and Gophers, as already noted, have never reached such heights since then.
Maybe we're due? Gophers vs. Boston University on Thursday in the national semifinals. The Wild are battling for first place and have already clinched a playoff spot. The Wolves have been maddening but they still have postseason potential. The Twins look legit. The Vikings won 13 games last year.
The future becomes the past before we know it, but the present seems pretty good right now.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
