Being a sports fan in Minnesota hasn’t been easy. While growing up in Minneapolis, going to a sporting event brought forth mixed emotions for me and for other fans in the Twin Cities.

Sure, there was the fun of going out with your family or friends and watching the sports that you love. However in the back of your mind, you knew that you’d probably end up leaving the stadium disappointed.

In 2002, that appeared to be changing, but you had to look closely. The Twins were showing signs of shaking off the cobwebs and becoming a playoff contender, but you weren’t sure it was a fluke or not. The Timberwolves were having decent regular seasons, but they went out quickly in the playoffs. The Wild were only two seasons into being a franchise and looked like it was going to be years before they looked like a postseason-caliber team.

Sigh … and then there were the Vikings, whose most recent postseason performance was getting blown out 41-0 in the NFC Championship.

Things were much worse if you were a Golden Gophers fan.

The football team had begun to fully embrace mediocrity and that continues to this day. The basketball program was desperately trying to recover from its embarrassing academic scandal and then there was the hockey program whose claim to fame was underachieving in the NCAA Tournament. The storied Golden Gophers hadn’t won a national title since 1979 and hadn’t even made the title game since 1989.

The Twin Cities has always been a pro sports town and for good reason, but the Gophers’ struggles on a big stage was especially disheartening.

Grant Potulny changed all those negative feelings for a while. The same Grant Potulny that was hired less than two weeks ago as head coach of the Northern Michigan University hockey team.

Potulny was part of a brand-new concept for the Gophers as he was one of the first recruits to come from outside Minnesota. For the longest time, the Gophers had this bizarre policy of not going after any player outside of the state.

Head coach Don Lucia got rid of that idea and recruited Potulny out of Grand Forks, North Dakota, home of the archrival Fighting Sioux (now Fighting Hawks). As a result of this change in tactics, Lucia nabbed Potulny, who said in a recent interview he considered it an honor, and ended up turning the previously dubbed Golden Chokers into a title contender. Everything truly came together 15 years ago.

The 2002 Gophers weren’t a famous team like the ’79 squad, but they were special to their devoted, but frustrated, fanbase. Minnesota had its best record in a decade and it just looked in sync on the ice.

At that time in my life, I was a hockey fan, but the Gophers weren’t exactly on my radar. However, some of my friends were hyped up for Minnesota’s postseason run, so they got me to pay attention.

What made 2002 special was that the Frozen Four was played in the Gophers backyard at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. So Minnesota basically had a home game with, as Potulny put it, “19,500 of the 20,000 fans were cheering for us.”

With a boisterous and wildly supportive crowd behind them, Minnesota took on Michigan in the semifinals and it started off great. The Gophers led 3-0 midway through the third and it appeared to be a sure thing that they’d be moving on to the title game, but the Wolverines rallied for two goals to make the crowd a little nervous. They didn’t need to worry, though, as the Gophers withstood Michigan’s furious rally and set the stage for the national championship.

By the time the championship game had begun, the Gophers had taken over the Twin Cities. People weren’t talking about the Vikings’ failures, the NFL Draft, spring training or if the T’wolves were going to get swept in the first round of the playoffs. It was all about the Maroon and Gold, and we wondered if the Gophers could win it all in perfect fashion directly in front of their thousands of loyal fans.

Heading into this highly anticipated contest, Potulny said he could feel the energy in the building and that the team just wanted to take the ice because of all the buildup. However, late in the game, that energy had dwindled and turned to fear. The Gophers trailed by one with time rapidly running out in the third period and the feeling that a title was meant to be won in Minnesota was going away.

While the crowd may have been panicking, Potulny said the Gophers were not and the emotion on the bench was calm even though the pressure was on. That calmness may have helped them as with less than a minute left, Minnesota tied the game 3-3, sending the crowd into a state of pandemonium.

While the fans may remember the puck going into the net, Potulny said he remembered the goal scorer, Matt Koalska, not celebrating on his own, but skating straight to the bench and leaping onto his teammates. That was a good representation of how everyone was feeling at that moment. We wanted to share it with each other.

That set the stage for the moment Potulny is most known for. You would think the pressure would be high on the team in sudden-death overtime, but Minnesota got a power play late in the extra session.

Potulny said that the Gophers were confident they could end it right there and that’s exactly where he was — right there in the right spot at the right time. A wide shot from the blue line banked off a fellow Gopher and right to Potulny, who calmly tapped it into the open net. He called it the “lightest puck he’s ever shot” and with that goal, he became a Minnesota legend despite being from North Dakota.

Even though it happened 15 years ago, Minnesotans still talk about that team and Potulny’s famous goal. After years of disappointment, we as a state finally had the outcome we were hoping for.

Since that goal, though, we haven’t quite felt the same way. Yeah, the Gophers won the national title again the following season and the Lynx have given us some fun by winning three WNBA titles, but those championships haven’t had the same effect as the 2002 win.

However, in the end, that can be a good thing because it makes us appreciate that victory even more.

Like I said, it’s not easy being a Minnesota sports fan, but thanks to Potulny, we can remember that things aren’t as hard as they seem.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.