When Natalie Darwitz, Krissy Wendell-Pohl played together, Minnesota women’s hockey went next level

Natalie Darwitz was a couple of years behind Krissy Wendell, and the pair met only once in a high school game. Wendell and Park Center came to the Eagan Civic Center to take on Darwitz and the Eagan Wildcats in mid-November 1999.

“It was a Monday night, a non-conference game, and the fire marshal eventually stopped any more people from getting in the arena,” Darwitz said. “It was jammed, people standing everywhere, and they ended up winning [10-4] in an up-and-down, fast-paced game.

“That was a turning point for the view of girls playing hockey in Minnesota.”

Twenty-five years later, increased octane in the women’s game has become an annual thing, and on Monday, it was announced that Darwitz and Wendell-Pohl (married to exceptional Gopher Johnny Pohl) had been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The one in Toronto. The one that counts more than any other.

Laura Halldorson, the Gophers coach when they won back-to-back national titles in 2003-04 and 2004-05, said:

“I was thrilled to hear that they would be inducted, and also that they will be going in together this November. They came on the scene for us in 2002-03, the same season Ridder Arena opened.

“We had very good players, and then Krissy and Natalie arrived, and what they brought was an absolutely high-end, amazing skill level every night. Young girls in Ridder those nights … they dreamed of becoming outstanding hockey players.”

Darwitz was on a varsity girls team for Eagan as a seventh-grader in 1996-97. Wendell played bantams with the boys until her junior year at Park Center in 1998-99.

We all first heard about Krissy as an athlete as the 12-year-old catcher for the Brooklyn Center team that reached the Little League World Series in 1994. Being the first girl at that position in the LLWS became a national story.

Personally, the first views of Wendell as a hockey player were in a couple of bantam games she played against a team with a couple of my nephews.

One of the players was T.J. McElroy, a strapping lad who would play defense at St. Cloud State, in the minors and also in Europe. Watching one night at the New Hope Arena, Wendell, maybe 14, appeared to be the most dynamic on the ice.

T.J. was asked about Wendell as an opponent this week and responded:

“Krissy is an athlete and a competitor. She was almost unstoppable as a bantam, playing against the boys. The thought of her coming at me with the puck still causes a sense of fear all these years later.

“Krissy hit me so hard one night, she knocked the snot out of me – literally.”

Wendell scored 109 and then 110 goals in her two high school seasons with Park Center’s girls team. Darwitz scored 316 goals in her high school career.

They first came to the Team USA training camp in Lake Placid, N.Y. in 1999 — Darwitz the youngest there at 15.

Cammi Granato, a Hockey Hall of Famer since 2010, had played on every Team USA in tournaments around the world since 1990. She was captain of the gold medal-winning Yanks in the first Olympic tournament in 1998.

“I remember Krissy and Natalie coming into Lake Placid … they were so young,” Granato said Thursday. “It didn’t take long to put us together on a line. The skill level they had, and that young exuberance … it was so much fun being with them.”

The line was Granato on the left, Wendell at center, Darwitz on the right.

“They each dominated in their own way,” Granato said. “Krissy would take pucks into traffic, get through people and use great hands to score. Natalie … with her speed, she flew down the wing and her ability to shoot the puck in motion was unique.

“I never thought of it that way, but looking back, playing on that line was my favorite time in hockey.”

Asked about Granato’s influence, Darwitz said: “She was definitely the adult among us as we got ready for the 2002 Olympics.”

Wendell had spent two years after high school training for the Olympics, so she and Darwitz were both freshmen when joining the Gophers for the 2002-03 season.

“I had this idea we should have balance on the lines, so I didn’t have them together the first season, and not until later in the second season,” Halldorson said. “That’s what the fans always wanted. And putting them together with Kelly Stephens, that was as good as it gets.

“All summer what I heard was, ‘You’re going to have Krissy and Natalie together next season, aren’t you?’ Even my mother, Beryl, would call and say, ‘You have to have them on the same line this season.’”

Yes, Mom, was the answer for the 2004-05 season — national champs at 36-2-2.

“Krissy and Natalie had different strengths and skills,” Halldorson said. “But together … they were magical.”