Still hard to believe, North Stars' postseason run in 1991 was a stunner

Editor's note: Second in a six-part series. The 1991 Stanley Cup Final started on May 15, and the 1992 Final Four came to a conclusion on April 6. A Minnesota team or venue was involved in those two major events and three more in between. What a run. We will look back at that stretch of Minnesota sports history each day this week.

Three owners in a span of three months. A team that won only one of its first nine games. Attendance of just 5,730 for the home opener.

Little in the early days of the 1990-91 NHL season pointed to the North Stars playing for Lord Stanley's Cup. But there they were, eight months later, grabbing the attention of the Twin Cities in a rollicking, eight-week ride that still is recalled fondly.

"Those two months at the Met, the type of run we had, we remember like it was yesterday," said Mike Modano, who was a second-year pro in 1990-91. "Those kinds of runs don't come around too often."

With series victories over the Chicago Blackhawks, St. Louis Blues and Edmonton Oilers, the North Stars made the second Stanley Cup Final in team history before falling to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games. Though they finished 27-39-14, the 16th-best record out of 21 teams that regular season, the North Stars picked the absolute right time to get hot.

Against the league's top team, the Presidents' Trophy-winning Blackhawks, the North Stars quickly showed they would be no pushover. Brian Propp's overtime goal gave Minnesota a 4-3 victory in Game 1.

The Blackhawks won the next two games, including 6-5 at Met Center in Game 3, and veteran forward Bobby Smith said coach Bob Gainey's calm and encouraging approach served the team well. "I remember him saying the best 10 forwards on the ice last night were [Chicago's] Jeremy Roenick and our nine guys," Smith said. "That really gave us a boost."

The North Stars responded with a 3-1 victory at Met Center to even the series 2-2, then drubbed the Blackhawks 6-0 at Chicago Stadium on the strength of five power-play goals. It got so bad for the home team that the organist played "Send in the Clowns."

Smith recalled how goalie coach Chico Resch encouraged players to shoot high against Blackhawks goalie Ed Belfour. "Chico was in suit, sliding along the dressing room floor, showing how Belfour covered the bottom part of the net," Smith said, laughing. "After practice, every player had to fire 20 pucks off the crossbar."

Two nights later, the North Stars won 3-1 at Met Center for a 4-2 series triumph in front of the first of nine consecutive sellout crowds.

North Stars fans started to see a glimpse of how Norm Green, who would move the team to Dallas following the 1992-93 season, played financial hardball. That spring, he made the team's home playoff games available in the Twin Cities market only on a pay-per-view basis. To watch the playoff run, viewers had to pony up $9.95 per home game in the first two rounds and $12.95 in the third and fourth rounds — prices that now would be $19.67 and $25.60 when adjusted for inflation.

Pat Forciea, who helped engineer Paul Wellstone's upset victory in the 1990 U.S. Senate race, was hired by the North Stars for his marketing prowess. He didn't agree with Green's decision.

"It was horrible. It was horrible," Forciea said. "Norm needed the money, and it was very lucrative, but, jeepers, it robbed the fans of some pretty exciting hockey."

Like their upset of the top-seeded Blackhawks, the North Stars dispatched the Blues, who had the NHL's second-best record, in six games.

"Stew Gavin and Gaetan Duchesne just shut down Brett [Hull] and Adam Oates," Modano said, pointing to the Blues stars who had a combined six goals in the series after 86 and 25, respectively, in the regular season.

Waiting for the North Stars in the Campbell Conference final were the Oilers, the defending Stanley Cup champions and winners of five Cups in the previous seven years.

The North Stars won the opener 4-1 in Edmonton, but the scene that night back in Bloomington was interesting. The team opened Met Center and its always-festive parking lots to fans to watch Game 1 on a big-screen TV. Problem was, about 100 of the crowd of 2,300 became too rowdy, with fights breaking out and even an usher being bitten by a fan. "It just got out of hand," Forciea said.

After the Oilers routed the North Stars 7-2 in Game 2, Minnesota reeled off three consecutive victories the 4-1 series victory and trip to the Stanley Cup Final.

In the final, the North Stars faced the Wales Conference champion Penguins and their superstar, Mario Lemieux, who was limited to 26 games in the regular season because of back surgery but amassed 16 goals and 28 assists in the playoffs.

After the North Stars won the opener 5-4 and Penguins took Game 2 4-1, the series shifted to Met Center. Before Game 3, Lemieux's back flared up, and he couldn't play. Minnesota took advantage with a 3-1 win.

Two wins down, two to go for the North Stars.

Lemieux, though, had other ideas.

He returned for Game 4, scoring the third of three Penguins goals in the opening three minutes of a 5-3 victory. He added a goal and two assists in a 6-5 win in Pittsburgh. Back at Met Center for Game 6, the Penguins trounced the Stars 8-0 to clinch the Cup as Lemieux had a goal and three assists.

"I don't know what they did to his back, but somehow, some way, it's all better," said Modano, now an executive adviser for the Wild. "This guy just steamrolled us the next three games."

The North Stars' fun ride was over, two wins short of the Stanley Cup.

"We beat the No. 1 team in the league. Then we beat the No. 2 team in the league. Then we beat the defending champs. And then we have a 2-1 lead on Mario Lemieux's team," Smith said. "It was a good run."