Kevin Allenspach

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...