2002 Paralympic Sled Hockey gold medalists join small group of U.S Hockey Hall of Fame inductees

Kip St. Germaine spoke in awe about the short list of teams that are enshrined in the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.

“There’s the 1998 Olympics women’s gold medal team, on the men’s side there’s the 1996 World Cup of Hockey gold medal team and the 1960 and 1980 Olympics men’s gold medal teams,” St. Germaine said. “It’s some pretty fine company right there.”

St. Germaine and teammates from the 2002 U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team that made history in Salt Lake City as the first American team to win gold in the Paralympic Winter Games will join that august group in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.

The team will be inducted at a dinner and ceremony Wednesday in Pittsburgh alongside retired NHL forwards Matt Cullen and Kevin Stevens and Olympic gold medalist Brianna Decker. The late Major Frederic McLaughlin, a pioneer in American hockey in the Midwest, will also be enshrined.

“It’s an honor,” said St. Germaine, who was a defenseman on the team. “We were just trying to have fun playing the game and hoping at that time that people would take us seriously – that sled hockey was really hockey. Instead of standing on our skates, we sat on our skates.

“We tried to be relevant and convince not only ourselves but the rest of the country and the world that it’s a legitimate sport.”

They accomplished that, and more.

The team is regarded as the equivalent of the 1980 U.S. men’s hockey team that shocked the world with its “Miracle on Ice” by defeating a powerhouse team from the Soviet Union on its way to an improbable gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.

The 2002 U.S. sled hockey team was a considerable underdog heading into the Games after finishing sixth of seven teams at the 1998 Paralympics in Nagano, Japan and arriving in Salt Lake City with 10 rookies on its 15-man roster.

Coached by retired NHL forward Rick Middleton, it went undefeated in Salt Lake City and outscored opponents 22-3 in its first five games.

The victory launched a run of U.S. excellence in international sled hockey. The U.S. national team is 26-2-0-6-1 (W-OTW-OTL-L-T) all-time in the Paralympic Winter Games and has won six medals, including five gold medals (2002, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022) and one bronze medal (2006).

It also spurred the growth of the sport from a handful of teams mainly in the Northeast and Midwest to 71 sled hockey organizations and 1,944 players nationwide in 2023-24, according to USA Hockey figures.

“I had a chance to look over my shoulder years down the road and I realized that we were the spark that lit the fuse that caused the explosion for sled hockey in the United States,” assistant coach Tom Moulton said.

The explosion came after the implosion in Nagano and last-place finish at the 2000 IPC Sled World Championship that was held in Salt Lake City. The only reason the U.S. qualified for the 2002 Paralympic hockey tournament was because it was the host nation.

Middleton took over a team that was in tatters, a mix of some sled hockey veterans and some players new to the sport with limited hockey knowledge. It was also a national team divided by regional cliques and loyalties.

That didn’t stop Middleton, who played 14 NHL seasons for the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins from 1974 to 1988, from taking the coaching job despite having no sled hockey experience -- which became apparent during skating drills at his first practice.

“I blew the whistle, I yelled, ‘backwards,’ and they all stopped and looked at me,” Middleton said. “I went, (expletive), they don't go backwards. They didn't know if I was joking or what, but by the color of my face being so red, they knew that I really didn't know that they didn't go backwards.”

The faux pas didn’t diminish the esteem and respect that the players, particularly the ones from New England, had for their new coach.

They were just thrilled to have a three-time NHL All-Star who had 988 points (448 goals, 540 assists) in 1,005 games to guide them.

“Rick, with all his knowledge of hockey, he forgot more about hockey than most people know, being an NHLer and being the player he was,” team captain Joe Howard said. “He brought all of that to the table, and he passed that on to us. Everybody just soaked it up like a sponge.”

Middleton concluded that sled hockey was no different than ice hockey and went about making changes. After watching tape from Nagano and the world championship, he determined that the team was too slow on defense and spent more time chasing opponents than pursuing the puck.

He moved speedy forward Sylvester Flis to defense and instituted a style of play inspired by his NHL days.

“It was kind of the old Don Cherry system,” Middleton said. “We make the red line, you get it in the opposite corner, you go in and you bang them, force them to put it around the boards, the defenseman pinches in, keeps that puck deep. You work it, and work it, get some rebounds and score some goals.”

Even with the new system and revamped defense, Middleton and his players didn’t know how they would stack up against the other countries in Salt Lake City.

Travel restrictions in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C. prevented them from competing in international contests.

“We were a total unknown – unknown to ourselves and to other teams,” team leader Rich DeGlopper said. “All we had done is scrimmage against ourselves. Before 9/11, we were going to play Japan and Canada.

“And, maybe, it was a blessing in disguise in that nobody knew how good we were then and maybe they were thinking, ‘OK, this is a team that we played in the world championships two years prior, and they were terrible.' "

The terrorist attacks also gave the U.S. players a heightened sense of patriotism, inspiring them to be their best playing on U.S. soil.

“We had a billboard in the corner of our locker room, and it had a picture of the (World Trade Center) towers from 9/11, and we had each game down the side of it,” St. Germaine said. “And after each game, we put the score on there. We kept a tally.”

The Americans went on a roll and defeated Japan 3-0, Canada 5-1, Norway 2-1, Sweden 6-0, and Estonia 6-1 before facing Norway again in the gold medal game before 8,315 fans at the E Center, now called the Maverik Center, in West Valley City, Utah.

If that wasn’t enough, Middleton and Moulton arranged a pregame phone call from Mike Eruzione, captain of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” team, to pump the team up.

“I want to say he was in Vegas on a golf course with Stan Mikita when he made that call and basically told us, 'The opportunity is ours. You're right on the doorstep. Now kick the door in and go take it,’” St. Germaine said. “Josh Wirt, who was the youngest player on the team at the time at 17, after the call was, like, ‘Who’s that?’ Josh hadn’t been born when the ’80 team won.”

The U.S. defeated Norway 4-3 in a nail-biting shootout. Flis, who became Middleton’s Bobby Orr with his offensive impact as a defenseman, was named tournament MVP after he led the Paralympics in points (18) and goals (11), records that still stand today.

The team was inducted into the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame in 2022. Middleton, players and team organizers say Wednesday’s U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame induction is extra special.

“The icing on the cake,” Middleton said. “When it happened all that time ago, everybody was happy for us, but nobody was making such a big deal. Looking in the rearview mirror over 20 years later, it really had a big effect on sled hockey in this country and where it's gone today.”