NCHC tourney adds to Xcel Energy Center's college hockey legacy

Xcel Energy Center, the home of the Minnesota Wild, will host the National Collegiate Hockey Conference's (NCHC) Frozen Faceoff championship tournament March 16-17, 2018. Leading up to the Frozen Faceoff, Wild.com will feature different aspects of the NCHC related to the Wild and Xcel Energy Center. More information, including tickets, is available at the Xcel Energy Center's Frozen Faceoff page.
A sanctuary for the sport and the capital of the State of Hockey, Xcel Energy Center will add another title to its storied history this spring. From this March on, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference will call Xcel Energy Center home for its annual Frozen Faceoff.
The arena will also play host to college hockey's greatest stage, the 2018 Frozen Four, in April. Relatively, any conference tournament pales in comparison to hockey's Big Dance. Yet over the past several years, the NCHC semifinal in particular has been a preview of sorts for the Frozen Four: At least one team from every Frozen Faceoff has made the Frozen Four, and in each of the past two seasons two Frozen Faceoff teams have been among the last four standing.

For the first time since the inception of the conference in 2013-2014, the NCHC's conference tournament is crossing the Mississippi River from Minneapolis to St. Paul. But even before the conference was formed, the history of the Xcel Energy Center has been intertwined with that of many of the conference's teams, players and coaches.

From preps to pros

Soon after the Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas in 1993, St. Paul began organizing the first of a few attempts to attract a new franchise. Ultimately, what prevented them from attracting one was the aging St. Paul Civic Center, which stood from 1973-1998 where Xcel Energy Center is today.
It wasn't until June 25, 1997 that the NHL officially awarded St. Paul an expansion franchise, two months after funding for a new arena was into place. The very next year the old Civic Center was demolished to make way for a new $170 million dollar facility.
For a hockey-crazed region that went without a National Hockey League team for seven years, the Xcel Energy Center -- and the professional hockey team that came with it -- was more than a welcome sight. The Minnesota Wild quickly became one of the Twin Cities' hottest tickets, boasting 400 consecutive sellout crowds through the first 10 years of the franchise.
As a hockey venue, the arena was and is still highly regarded. In 2004, ESPN named it the best overall sports venue. And in 2014, Stadium Journey Magazine named it the best stadium experience in the NHL, two of many awards bestowed upon the arena over the years. Also in 2014, the Wild helped reaffirm Xcel Energy as one of the top venues in the country by installing a new video board six times bigger than the previous one, before replacing every seat two years later.
While Xcel Energy Center is synonymous with the Minnesota Wild, the arena has a special significance for the NCHC's Minnesota-born skaters. Every March, it's the home of the annual Minnesota State Boys High School Hockey Tournament, known to many as simply "The Tourney". Over 160 boys high school hockey teams throughout the state battle for a chance to be one of the 16 teams to play at Xcel Energy Center.
The first state tournament was held there in 2001, and it has only increased in popularity since. In fact, the 2015 Class 2A Championship game -- in which current Minnesota Duluth freshman Louie Roehl faced off against St. Cloud State brotherly trio Jack, Ryan and Nick Poehling -- garnered an arena-record attendance of 21,609.
A number of NCHC skaters such as North Dakota's Trevor Olson, Miami's Zach LaValle, and Minnesota Duluth's Jared Thomas, among others, have represented their high schools in Minnesota's state tournament. Some of them, like the Poehling brothers from St. Cloud State, Colorado College's Mason Bergh and UMD Bulldogs Dylan Samberg and Peter Krieger were even crowned champions. The significance of the Minnesota State Boys High School Hockey Tournament is plainly visible in the arena's main concourse, as a uniform from every high school program hangs on the wall.

A college hockey haven

While its history is limited compared to NHL and high school hockey, college hockey has had an annual presence at Xcel Energy Center since the arena was first built.
From the St. Cloud State Huskies upsetting North Dakota 6-5 in overtime to win their first and only WCHA Final Five title in 2001, to current Huskies head coach Bob Motzko winning a national championship as an assistant coach with the Minnesota Gophers in 2002, college hockey -- and NCHC programs -- have enjoyed program-defining moments in the arena.
The 12-year run of the WCHA Final Five provided the Xcel Energy Center with the bulk of its college hockey memories. And iconic moments from NCHC programs are numerous. Games like the Final Five semifinals in 2012, when North Dakota scored five unanswered third-period goals to upset Minnesota 6-5 before going on to win its third-straight tournament, are plentiful within Xcel Energy Center's hockey-rich history.
But Minnesota Duluth's Kyle Schmidt's iconic celebration -- sliding across the Xcel Energy Center ice after scoring the overtime game-winner to give the Bulldogs their first championship in 67 years at the 2011 Frozen Four -- is undoubtedly among the arena's greatest championship moments across all sports and levels.
Through 12 years of hosting, the Xcel Energy Center helped the WCHA Final Five become among the better-attended college hockey tournaments in the nation. The close proximity of many of the old WCHA programs helped, but so did the Final Five's annual collection of elite talent. From 2002 to 2006, all five national champions played in the Final Five at Xcel Energy Center.
But after the seismic shift of college hockey conferences in 2013, the arena was left without a yearly conference tournament. The newly formed Big Ten alternated between Xcel Energy Center and Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, while the WCHA fluctuated between St. Paul and Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Both tournaments are now based on home ice, and before the NCHC announced its plans to move its tournament from the Target Center to Xcel Energy Center through at least 2022, annual college hockey in St. Paul appeared to be in the rearview mirror.
Similar to the successful WCHA Final Five, the Frozen Faceoff boasts some of the top teams in the NCAA each year. As a result, the Frozen Faceoff appears poised to resurrect Xcel Energy Center as the annual host of the top teams in college hockey. Furthermore, if recent history repeats itself, at least one of the teams featured in the 2018 Frozen Faceoff will be back at Xcel Energy Center once more. But until this coming March, that chapter of the Xcel Energy Center's history has yet to begin.
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