DALLAS STARS. The Dallas Stars, a professional hockey team, belong to the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League. The franchise, originally known as the Minnesota North Stars, began play during the 1967-1968 season when the NHL added six expansion teams, thereby doubling in size. The franchise moved to Dallas before the 1993-94 season. Professional hockey in Dallas dates back to 1941, when the Dallas Texans joined the minor-league American Hockey Association. However, World War II caused the cancellation of league play until the 1945-46 season, when the Texans resumed play as members of the United States Hockey League. Due to travel costs, however, the Texans (along with teams in Fort Worth and Houston) dropped out of the USHL following the 1948-49 season. The Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL operated a minor-league team called the Dallas Blackhawks in the Central Hockey League from 1967 to 1982. The CHL returned to Dallas in 1992 with a team called the Dallas Freeze, but that team ceased operations after the 1993-94 season.

During their twenty-six seasons in Minnesota, the North Stars twice won division titles (in 1981-82 and 1983-84) and twice reached the final round of the playoffs (in 1980-81 and 1990-91), but never won a Stanley Cup, symbol of the NHL championship. In their first season in Dallas under the guidance of coach and general manager Bob Gainey, the Stars finished third in the Central Division, though they fell to fifth the following season and to sixth, missing the playoffs, in 1995-96. In December 1995 owner Norman Green sold the team to media mogul Tom Hicks, also the owner of the Texas Rangers^qv baseball team. Shortly thereafter, Gainey hired Ken Hitchcock to assume the coaching duties. The change paid off almost immediately. Beginning with the 1996-97 season, the Stars established themselves as one of the elite teams in the NHL. In 1998-99 they posted the best regular season record in the NHL (51-19-12) and claimed their only Stanley Cup championship. They reached the finals again the following year. By the end of the 2000-2001 season they had won five divisional titles in a row. Goalie Ed Belfour was named the most valuable player of the 1998-99 playoffs, and Hitchcock was named the NHL Coach of the Year following the 1998-99 season.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Dan Diamond, ed., Total Hockey: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Hockey League (Kansas City: Andrews McMeel, 1998).

Martin Donell Kohout