While USA Today‘s Bob Nightengale looks at a ‘new’ baseball rivalry between the Cubs and Pirates, I prefer looking back at some of the classic ones that, over time, have faded – or even vanished – due to various reasons (such as realignment, relocation, teams being mediocre, etc.).

Here’s a look-back at an old rivalry involving Chicago’s hockey team, one that was at its peak during the 1980s – the forgotten Black Hawks-Minnesota North Stars rivalry.* Fantasy Sports insider Drew Farmer, guest posting again today, provides us with the history lesson.

-K.P. Wee

*The Blackhawks were known as the ‘Black Hawks’ (ie. two separate words) until 1987.

The Forgotten Minnesota North Stars – Chicago Blackhawks rivalry

By Drew Farmer  |  Twitter: @DrewMFarmer

The Minnesota North Stars and Chicago Blackhawks had one of the most intense hockey rivalries the NHL has ever seen. The sad truth is that the games that produced so much hate between players and fans is nearly forgotten. It has been almost 25 years since the Minnesota North Stars relocated to Dallas and took the franchise’s legacy with it.

Not only were thousands of North Stars fans left without a team, ripped from their hands by owner Norm Green, but future generations knew little to nothing about the team that once called Minneapolis home. The departure left fathers only stories to tell their children about the great games between the North Stars and Blackhawks. The tales of Minnesota overcoming the top seeded Blackhawks on the way to the Stanley Cup finals is just a memory and one that is a part of the forgotten rivalry between the two NHL teams.

In the beginning

The rivalry between the Minnesota North Stars and Chicago Blackhawks began in 1981. Despite both hockey clubs being in the NHL for some time, Chicago since 1926 and Minnesota since 1967, it took years for the rivalry to take shape. By 1981, it was ready and for the next decade the two clubs put on exciting games in the regular season and playoffs.

The games between the two teams were considered wars, and former Blackhawks player Denis Savard has claimed he never slept well the night before playing Minnesota.

In the 1981-82 NHL season, Minnesota finished atop the Norris Division. The team accumulated 94 points under coach Glen Sonmor, while Chicago came fourth with 72 points. The two teams met in the first round of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. It was a series of goals as 28 goals were scored in four games.

The Blackhawks 3-1 win in the best of five series stung the North Stars. The team had never won the Stanley Cup and its diehard support craved the trophy more than anything else. Chicago’s dominance in the first round of the playoffs was officially the start of every fight, hateful word and bloody lip. There would be more to come.

In the middle

A year after Chicago dumped the North Stars out of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the two teams reignited hostilities. This time, the hockey teams met in the second round of the playoffs. Unlike the previous season, in 1982-83, Chicago topped the Norris Division with 104 points. Minnesota finished in second place with 96 points.

The series was once again filled with goals from both teams. Thirty-eight goals were scored and incidents on the ice made it a must-watch series. The series was dominated by the home team as four of the five games went to the home side. The one game that wasn’t won by the home team was Game 5 and it proved to be pivotal. Chicago defeated the North Stars in Minneapolis, 4-3 in overtime. The Blackhawks then put five goals past Minnesota goalkeeper Gilles Meloche at Chicago Stadium in Game 6. Minnesota was out again.

The 1982 and 1983 playoff series between the North Stars and Blackhawks had been so good, why not do it all again? That is exactly what happened in 1984. The teams met once more in the postseason’s first round. Minnesota had won the Norris Division while Chicago just made the playoffs. The series went back and forth, but after losing Game 4 in Chicago, things looked all too familiar for the North Stars. Remarkably, Bill Mahoney’s team recovered at home for Game 5 to win 4-1. The North Stars had finally registered a punch in the fight.

The win changed the face of the rivalry. Prior to Minnesota’s win in 1984, the feud had been one sided. Chicago was the bully beating up on the North Stars. Now, revenge had been found and Chicago no longer had the edge on Minnesota.

The End

Minnesota’s revenge was short lived. A year later, meeting for a fourth straight season in the Stanley Cup playoffs, Chicago put the North Stars to the sword. The six games series featured 61 goals as the teams once again showed their unique style of attacking ice hockey.

Looking back on the rivalry, the 1985 playoff series between Chicago and Minnesota marked the end. The games between the clubs had become the best thing on ice for the NHL, but in 1986, the two teams were eliminated from the playoffs in the first round. For some fans, it was an anti-climactic way to end the season. How could the two teams not play each other after four epic battles in four years?

Off the ice things were changing for Minnesota. The franchise’s owner Norm Green, who took over the club in 1990, was looking into moving the team. Unhappy with a number of things in Minnesota, including falling attendances due to poor results, Green worked behind the scenes to move the North Stars. He attempted to move the team to Los Angeles, but his efforts were stopped when the NHL gave the go ahead for the expansion Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

However, just before the North Stars left Minnesota, there was a glimmer of hope in 1990 and 1991. The NHL was about to make changes never before seen in the league and usher in a new era. It was only fitting that one of its best rivalries from the past would be renewed briefly.

The first round of the 1990 playoffs witnessed the Blackhawks once again pulling their magic over Minnesota. It took seven games, but Chicago was on its way to the Stanley Cup semifinals.

In 1991, the North Stars found redemption. As seemed the case for so many years, the teams met in the first round of the playoffs. It was back and forth hockey with the teams displaying their attacking styles. In Game 5, after years of anger and frustration at the hands of Chicago, the North Stars exercised their demons. Minnesota throttled Chicago 6-0 in the Windy City. It was an earthshattering result and it led to a 3-1 Minnesota win in Game 6.

Minnesota’s new-found belief led it past the St. Louis Blues and mighty Edmonton Oilers to reach the Stanley Cup finals. There, the dream was ended, however. Despite winning Game 1, the Pittsburgh Penguins destroyed Minnesota in the series. Most humiliating was the 8-0 Game 6 clincher that saw the North Stars’ Stanley Cup dreams shattered.

The North Stars had missed the playoffs the next season, and in 1993, Green finally moved the franchise to Dallas. The move south ended what was one of the greatest NHL rivalries ever produced on ice. Today, the playoff series the teams contested are just a memory to hockey fans of a bygone era.

Let me first say this to get it out of the way: I’m not a Habs fan and I have never been a Habs fan. Growing up, I loved the Bruins and I thought Denis Savard (who played for Montreal in the early 1990s) was awesome – but I never rooted for the Canadiens in 1993. 

Having said that, the Canadiens’ 1993 Stanley Cup run is a part of hockey history, and that championship is magnified every spring when the last Canadian-based team alive is eliminated – as no Canadian team (not Montreal Canadiens, but Canadian, period) has won a Cup since then. Even if I am not – and was not – a fan, it’s a story that still must be discussed. 

June 9th, 2018, marks the 25th anniversary of the Cup clincher. To “celebrate” that, here’s sportswriter and blogger Rajan Nanavati with a guest post, discussing the career of forgotten Cup champion Paul DiPietro – an unsung hero who was a key contributor during Montreal’s 1993 run. 

K.P. Wee

The Interesting, Long-Lasting Hockey Life of Paul DiPietro

By Rajan Nanavati

In life, we tend to be so focused on where we’re going, that we often forget to take a step back and enjoy the journey.

If we could give advice to former NHL player and Stanley Cup champion Paul DiPietro, we would do so. While he was one of the stars of Montreal’s championship in 1993, it was a long and twisted road for DiPietro to get there.

In 1990, the Montreal Canadiens selected DiPietro with their fifth-round pick (102nd overall) in the NHL Draft. Despite scoring 119 points in 66 games as a member of the Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), DiPietro lasted that long largely in part because of his size, or lack thereof — he was only 5-foot-9, which didn’t exactly give him the idea frame of someone destined for a long career in the league.

Like most rookies, DiPietro spent his entire rookie season playing with the Fredericton Canadiens — also known as the “Baby Habs” — of the American Hockey League (AHL). But, it didn’t take long for the “big league” Canadiens to realize that they might have a future contributor on their hands. In DiPietro’s rookie season, he had 70 points in 78 games, which included 39 goals.

Clearly encouraged by what they saw, DiPietro spent his next two seasons splitting time between Fredericton and Montreal, playing at last 29 games for the NHL club in both years. In fact, his 17 points in 29 contests during the 1992-93 season solidified a spot for DiPietro on Montreal’s postseason roster, as the Canadiens finished with the third-most points in the Prince of Wales Conference standings.

That decision would unquestionably pay dividends for Montreal. After the Canadiens found themselves in an 0-2 hole against the favored Quebec Nordiques, with the local media even saying that the Canadiens should consider trading away future Hall of Fame goaltender Patrick Roy, Montreal turned the tide in the series, winning the next four straight games. DiPietro would help Montreal clinch the series in emphatic manner, as he tallied a hat trick plus an assist in Game 6 of the series, giving Montreal the 4-2 series win.

In Game 1 against the Buffalo Sabres in the ensuing series, DiPietro picked up where he left off, adding another goal and an assist in Montreal’s 4-3 win. His goal in the first 6:23 of the second period helped give Montreal a 3-1 lead in the game. You could say that helped Montreal start off on the right foot against Buffalo, as they swept the Sabres in a series that lasted only six games.

In the Prince of Wales Conference Finals, DiPietro added two more goals and an assist in Montreal’s 4-1 series win against the New York Islanders. His goal in Game 2 helped tie the score up late in the second period, and Montreal would add another in the third to secure the win. DiPietro scored again in Game 4, though Montreal ended up suffering their lone defeat in the series; he was the only score for the Canadiens in their 4-1 loss.

Montreal then advanced to the 1993 Stanley Cup, giving them their third appearance in the league’s final series in a decade. However, while Montreal did most recently make it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1989, they were on the losing end of the series, suffering a 4-2 loss to the Calgary Flames; it was only the second loss in the Stanley Cup in 33 years for the franchise that has been to and won the most Cups. Montreal had most recently won the Cup in 1986, but nothing after that.

The series had an added layer of intrigue, as Montreal would be facing off against Wayne Gretzky – “The Great One” himself – and the Los Angeles Kings. Gretzky had led the Edmonton Oilers to four Stanley Cup championships, but hadn’t been to the Finals after being traded to the Kings – until now.

Gretzky, Luc Robitaille, and the Kings got off to a fast start, with Robitaille tallying two goals and Gretzky dishing out three assists (and a goal of his own) in the Kings’ 4-1 win over the Canadiens. But LA’s celebration would be short-lived, as Montreal would end up winning the next four games straight.

Ironically, in a series featuring the game’s greatest player in history, DiPietro is the name whom the history books will likely remember, as he scored two goals in the deciding Game 5 of the series, giving Montreal a 4-1 win in the game and the series. DiPietro scored the first goal of the game, and when Los Angeles tried to make a comeback while trailing 3-1 in the game (and the series), DiPietro scored the last goal of the game, which was effectively the nail in the coffin of the Kings.

Members of that Canadiens team that won in 1993 have all lauded how DiPietro emerged as one of the stars for Montreal in that series. Others commented on how DiPietro contributed as a fourth line or reserve player, giving them the types of clutch goals and key plays that are needed from guys deep on the roster in the postseason.

The hero of the 1993 run would go on to play another two seasons with Montreal; in the year after DiPietro helped Montreal win the cup, he registered a career-high 13 goals with the Canadiens. But two seasons later, Montreal traded him to the squad that was “persona non-grata” to any hockey fan in Quebec: the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Unfortunately, DiPietro bounced between the NHL and the minors once again, eventually culminating in the Leafs trading DiPietro to the Los Angeles Kings (in something of an ironic twist). But his career alongside Gretzky was very short-lived, as he spent the vast majority of his time in the IHL, with teams like the Phoenix Roadrunners and Cincinnati Cyclones.

But if you think that was the end of DiPietro’s career, you couldn’t be more wrong. DiPietro went on to play another 16 years of professional hockey, the vast majority of which took place in Switzerland. It wasn’t until 2014 when we officially saw DiPietro retire.