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Deep in the heart of Texas, Dallas has had a community of hockey fans since 1941. In 1992, the NHL began a series of neutral-site, regular-season games as part of a strike settlement. Dallas was chosen to host the tenth such game, on December 15, 1992. As it happened, a few days earlier, the NHL had given a franchise to Anaheim, paving the way for the Minnesota North Stars to look elsewhere to relocate. They ultimately chose Dallas as the best location and moved the Stars there in 1993.

Dallas hosted minor league hockey teams during much of the 1940s to the early 1990s. The Dallas Texans played for the American Hockey Association from 1941 to 1949 (but for a cancelled season due to World War II). Travel costs proved too much to keep the franchise going. The Dallas Blackhawks, affiliated with the Chicago Blackhawks, played for the Central Hockey League (CHL) from 1967 to 1982. Finally, beginning in 1992, the Dallas Freeze played just two seasons as part of the CHL. That same year, the city was chosen to host a regular-season NHL game.

As part of the 1992 collective bargaining agreement, the NHL set up a series of 24 regular-season games to be played in 16 cities that did not have their own NHL franchise. They would continue the neutral-site series into the 1993-94 season for a total of 50 games. Each NHL team would play two games per season at a neutral location. Therefore, the season was upped to 84 games.

The purpose of these games was to raise interest in hockey in new areas. It gave the NHL the chance to see how each city might fare with an NHL franchise of their own. Four of the neutral-site cities received teams – Dallas and Phoenix obtained relocated franchises while Atlanta and Miami received expansion teams. Columbus, Ohio earned itself a franchise being located halfway between Cleveland and Cincinnati, which had both hosted neutral-site games.

When Dallas first hosted the NHL, 11,251 hockey fans turned out at Reunion Arena to watch the St. Louis Blues and New York Islanders. The arena needed more than 5,000 more to reach capacity, so the amount of tickets sold was lower than hoped. However, promotor Brad Thomas explained, “Considering that it’s 10 days before Christmas, we had to charge regular NHL prices and we have two teams who aren’t big contenders, I’m happy with the crowd.” Looking back at the neutral-site games, the average attendance was 11,196, so Dallas was above average.

Although Dallas had its own CHL team at the time, there were still two minor issues before the NHL game. First, they did not have any air-conditioning in the arena. Second, Islanders goalie Glenn Healy was expected to practice without a net. In thinking back, he said, “I can recall going out for warmup and sticking my head between the panes of glass at the back of the rink and saying, ‘We need the nets out for warmup!’ … [A local asked,] ‘You need the nets for warmup?! Not just the game?’ ‘Yeah, they’re going to warm up and shoot on me. It would be nice to have a net.’”

Still, the Blues and Islanders gave Dallas an exciting game. Every time the Islanders took the lead, the Blues answered so that they each scored once per period. 

Brett Hull had scored for the Blues in the second period, but as the third period wound down, he missed over six minutes of the game after he was “blasted into the boards by Islander defenseman Darius Kasparaitis.” He went down with an injured back, but referee Paul Stewart didn’t call a penalty. Hull commented, “All of a sudden I’m going face first into the boards. Its’ an absolute joke. We haven’t had a well officiated game in a month. One of these days somebody’s going to get hurt badly. They (the officials) are deciding the hockey game, not the players.” The crowd was not happy either since they leaned for the Blues thanks to picking up their radio broadcasts. When Brendan Shanahan tried to retaliate, he hit the glass hard enough to stop the game for them to repair it. Then Kevin Miller retaliated against Kasparaitis and got a penalty. While the Blues were shorthanded, their Nelson Emerson tied the score to send the game into overtime.

In overtime, Healy held off the Blues long enough for his teammate Pierre Turgeon to slide a pass to Derek King. At 2:33, King got the puck past Curtis Joseph to win the game for the Islanders. According to King, “I thought the fans were enthusiastic, even though they weren’t cheering for us. Dallas seems like a nice city. I thought the people did a pretty good job supporting the game.” He was not alone in thinking that. His coach, Al Arbour, told the press, “I think that Dallas would be a good future market. I’m somewhat disappointed the crowd wasn’t any bigger but they cheered and seemed to enjoy the game.”

The owner of the Minnesota North Stars, Norm Green, came to the same conclusion. The NHL had held its winter meeting at the Breakers Hotel & Resort in Palm Beach on December 10. They decided to award expansion franchises to Anaheim (to bring in Disney money and marketing) and South Florida. Green had just about finalized a lease agreement with Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim to move the Stars. Instead, and confirming an agreement dating back to 1990, the NHL told Green he could move anywhere else without paying any transfer fees. They sent Jim Lites of the expansion committee to relay the news. Green responded that he would wait until January 15 to see if any proposals from Twin Cities arenas would keep the Stars in Minnesota. According to Lites, “We went on a road show together, and Dallas was the best option out there. He essentially went back to Minnesota, packed his bags, and began making plans to go to Texas.” The decision to relocate the Stars to Dallas was announced on March 10, 1993.

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