Originally published on Mar. 16, 2019
By Zane Miller
The Last Hurrah is a
series that discusses the final major sports events at sporting venues around
the world.
On Tuesday, June 1st, 1999,
the Dallas Stars played against the Colorado Avalanche in Game 6 of the NHL’s
Western Conference Finals, which was also the final NHL game to be played at
McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado.
McNichols Sports Arena
opened in 1975, becoming the home of the new Colorado Rockies NHL team (not to
be confused with the Colorado Rockies MLB team) as they relocated after two
seasons as the Kansas City Scouts. The arena was named after then-mayor William
H. McNichols Jr., who went on to serve for 15 years in office from 1968 to
1983. In addition to the Rockies, the arena also became the home of the Denver
Spurs of the World Hockey Association for the 1975-76 season before the team
relocated to become the Ottawa Civics, but promptly folded two weeks later.
The arena played host to
the Rockies for the next six seasons with limited success, as the team’s best
season while in Colorado came in 1977-78 when they earned a 19-40-21 record (59
points), yet still made the playoffs in the final playoff spot and were
defeated in the first round two games to none by the Philadelphia Flyers.
Following the 1981-82 season, they relocated once again as the New Jersey
Devils, where the team remains to this day and has found much more success,
with three Stanley Cups since making the move.
After the Rockies moved,
the arena continued to host hockey as the Colorado Flames (a minor league
affiliate of the Calgary Flames) of the original Central Hockey League played
at the facility from 1982 to 1984, making the playoffs for both of their two
seasons but being eliminated in the first round both times. In addition to
hockey, McNichols Sports Arena also hosted the Denver Nuggets NBA team from
1975 to 1999 as well as the Denver Dynamite Arena Football League team from 1987
through 1991, winning the first ArenaBowl championship as well.
The Denver Grizzlies of
the International Hockey League used the arena as their home ice during their
lone season in 1994-95 before continuing the trend of relocation to become the Utah
Grizzlies the following season. In 1995, however, the arena would get its break
after suffering through three hockey team relocations, as Denver would be
awarded their second NHL franchise as the team formerly known as the Quebec
Nordiques moved into McNichols Sports Arena, and were rebranded as the Colorado
Avalanche.
The Avalanche found
success almost immediately, finishing the 1995-96 season with a 47-25-10 record
(104 points) and taking the second seed for the playoffs in the Western
Conference. The team then went on to sweep the Florida Panthers to win the 1996
Stanley Cup Finals. While the Stanley Cup itself was won in Miami, the teams
played the first two games of the series at McNichols Sports Arena, which the
Avalanche claimed 3-1 and 8-1 respectively.
The next two seasons
would see strong runs from the Avalanche, including a President’s Trophy in
1996-97, but would be unable to repeat as Stanley Cup champions during this
time. As the Avalanche’s current home, the Pepsi Center, was under construction
and set to replace McNichols Sports Arena as home ice for the Avalanche, time
was running out to give the arena another championship.
In the 1998-99 season,
the Avalanche once again did their job in the regular season, going 44-28-10
(98 points) to take the second seed in the Western Conference playoffs. The
team took down the seventh-seed San Jose Sharks in the first round four games
to two, then faced the Detroit Red Wings, who were looking for a three-peat
after winning the Stanley Cup in 1997 and 1998. However, that was not to be as
Colorado again won the series four games to two, advancing to the Western
Conference Finals.
In the Western Conference
Finals, the Avalanche faced the Dallas Stars, who finished with a 51-19-12
record (114 points) to win the President’s Trophy and first seed in the Western
Conference.
The first two games were
at Reunion Arena, the then-home of the Stars, as the Avalanche started out the
strong with a 2-1 victory on May 22nd. However, in the second game on May 24th,
the Stars won it 4-2 to make it a 1-1 series heading back to Denver.
With the next two games
on May 26th and May 28th at McNichols Sports Arena, the Stars won 3-0 in game
three to gain the series lead, however the Avalanche came back in game four
with a crucial 3-2 overtime victory, tying the series up 2-2 going back to
Dallas. In the May 30th game five contest, Colorado came through to win 7-5 and
put themselves just one game away from returning to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Game 6 started out with the
same goaltenders that had played the previous five games in the series, as
goalie Ed Belfour started for the Stars, as he earned a stellar 35-15-9 record
during the regular season with a 1.99 goals against average and a .915 save
percentage, and was looking to avenge his defeat in the 1992 Stanley Cup Finals
with the Chicago Blackhawks as he was swept by the Pittsburgh Penguins and was
unable to record a win in the series. Meanwhile, Avalanche goaltender Patrick
Roy was going for his fifth Stanley Cup Finals appearance and fourth Stanley
Cup championship, as he had won previously in 1986 and 1993 with the Montreal Canadiens,
as well as the 1996 championship with the Avalanche.
The game started out with
both teams being scoreless for the majority of the first period, until the
19:25 mark as Colorado right wing Claude Lemieux found the back of the net to
put the Avalanche up in front 1-0.
In the second period, the
Stars responded quickly as fellow right winger Jere Lehtinen scored just 1:55
into the second, to tie the game up 1-1. However, again the period would be
light on scoring as the teams headed into the locker rooms still tied up at one
apiece.
In the third period,
however, right wing Jamie Langenbrunner came up big for the Stars, scoring at
6:49 as well as at the 17:15 mark on the power play, giving the Stars a 3-1
advantage with just 2:45 to go.
Just 14 seconds after the
power play tally, Dallas defenseman Richard Matvichuk got his first goal of the
playoffs to tack on another insurance goal for the Stars. The Avalanche opted
not to pull Roy for the extra attacker, somewhat ironically in hindsight as Roy
later became known for aggressively pulling the goaltender late in games during
his coaching career, particularly in the 2014 playoffs. Either way, the
Avalanche would not find a way back into the game as the Stars were able to
stave off elimination with the 4-1 win, and push the series into a game seven,
but it would be the final NHL game played at McNichols Sports Arena.
As game seven went back
to Dallas on June 4th, the Stars matched the same score with a 4-1 win to move
on to the Stanley Cup Finals and finish off a hard-fought Western Conference
Finals series.
The Stars went on to defeat the Buffalo Sabres four games to two to win the 1999 Stanley Cup championship, the first championship in franchise history, but McNichols Sports Arena would be replaced by the Pepsi Center for the start of the 1999-00 season. On Monday, January 24th, 2000, the McNichols Sports Arena was demolished. The site is now currently used as a parking lot space for the current home of the Denver Broncos NFL team, Broncos Stadium at Mile High.
Link to stats database: https://www.hockey-reference.com/boxscores/199906010COL.html
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