In 1967, the NHL doubled in size from six to 12 teams, marking the largest expansion ever undertaken at one time by a professional sports league. Four of those six teams -- the Los Angeles Kings, the Philadelphia Flyers, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the St. Louis Blues -- are celebrating their 50th anniversary seasons this year.

But two of those six expansion teams are not. The California Seals turned Cleveland Barons merged with the Minnesota North Stars in 1978, and the North Stars headed south to become the Dallas Stars in 1993.

Before that history unfolded, there was a game: the first NHL game in the state of Minnesota, played on October 21, 1967.

After the North Stars opened their inagural season on a four-game road trip, they returned to Minnesota for their home opener at the Met Center in Bloomington.

"The Original Six arenas were all pretty unique," said goaltender Carl Wetzel, who played five games for the North Stars that season. "You take something that's that old and then you come into a new building ... it was pretty exciting."

Lou Nanne, who joined the North Stars following the 1968 Winter Olympics, where he played for the United States, also remembers the arena fondly.

"The Met Center, at the time that we were in the league, was the finest hockey building in the country, in the world, in our estimation," Nanne said. "The sight lines were absolutely spectacular. It was clean, it was colorful. The ice was the best in the world."

It didn't take long for the Met to garner a glowing reputation among players, but on the night of the home opener, workers hadn't yet finished installing the arena's spectator seats. Recorded attendance at the game was 12,951, not far off the Met's ice hockey capacity of around 15,000.

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