Though Natalie Darwitz was just a couple of years younger than Chrissy Wendell, the two only played against each other once in a high school game: Wendell and Park Center took on Darwitz and the Eagan Wildcats in mid-November 1999 at the Eagan Civic Center.
“Because it was a Monday night non-conference game, the fire chief ended up not allowing any more spectators in,” Darwitz said. “The place was packed, there were people standing everywhere, but in the end they won. [10-4] It's a fast-paced game with lots of ups and downs.
“That was a turning point in how we looked at girls playing hockey in Minnesota.”
Twenty-five years later, the excitement around the women's game has become an annual tradition, and on Monday it was announced that Darwitz and Wendell Paul (married to Gopher extraordinaire Johnny Paul) have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Something in Toronto that is more important than anything else.
“It was a big part of the team's success,” said Laura Halldorson, the Gophers' coach when they won consecutive national titles in 2003-04 and 2004-05.
“We were very excited to hear that they were going to be inducted and that we would be inducted together this November. They joined our team in 2002-03, the season that Ridder Arena opened.”
“We had some very talented players, but then Chrissy and Natalie came in and what they brought every night was a really high-end, incredible skill level. The young girls at Ridder that night … had dreams of becoming outstanding hockey players.”
Darwitz played for Eagan High School's girls varsity team as a seventh-grader from 1996 to 1997. Wendell competed at bantamweight on the boys' team until his junior year at Park Center High School from 1998 to 1999.
We first heard of Chrissy as a 12-year-old catcher for the Brooklyn Center team that played in the Little League World Series in 1994. She made national headlines by being the first girl to play that position in a Little League World Series.
Personally, I first learned that Wendell was a hockey player when I watched a few bantamweight matches where she teamed up with my nephews.
One of those players was TJ McElroy, a burly kid who'd played defense at St. Cloud State, in the minor leagues and in Europe, and one night at New Hope Arena I watched as 14-year-old Wendell was perhaps the most dynamic player on the ice.
When asked this week what Wendell is like as an opponent, TJ replied:
“Chrissy is an athlete and competitive. When I competed against the boys at bantamweight, she was nearly unstoppable. Even after all these years, I still feel fear when I think of her coming at me with the puck.”
“One night Chrissie hit me so hard that my nose was literally spurting out.”
Wendell scored 109 goals in two high school seasons for the Park Center girls' team and then 110 goals in two seasons after that. Darwitz scored 316 goals in her high school career.
They first attended Team USA training camp in Lake Placid, New York, in 1999. Darwitz was 15 and the youngest there.
Cammie Granato, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010, has played for the U.S. team in tournaments around the world since 1990. She was captain of the U.S. gold medal-winning team at the inaugural Olympic tournament in 1998.
“I remember Chrissy and Natalie coming to Lake Placid… they were both very young,” Granato said Thursday. “It didn't take long for us to be on the line together. Their skill level and the exuberance of youth… they were a lot of fun to be around.”
The line was Granato on the left, Wendell in the center and Darwitz on the right.
“They were each dominant in their own way,” Granato said. “Chrissy was able to carry the puck through traffic, weave through people and score with great handling. Natalie … was unique with her speed down the wing and her ability to shoot the puck on the move.”
“I never thought of it that way, but looking back, playing on that line was some of the most fun I've had in hockey.”
When asked about Granat's influence, Darwitz said, “She was definitely the adult among us when we were preparing for the 2002 Olympics.”
Wendell spent two years after graduating from high school training for the Olympics, so she and Darwitz were both freshmen when they joined the Gophers for the 2002-03 season.
“The idea was to balance the line, so we didn't use them together in the first season and then didn't use them together until the second half of the second year,” Halldorson said. “That's what the fans wanted all along, and putting them with Kelly Stevens was the perfect outcome.”
“All summer long I'd hear people saying, 'Are you putting Chrissy and Natalie together next season?' Even my mum, Beryl, called me and said, 'We've got to put them on the same line this season.'”
Yes, Mom, that was the answer in the 2004-05 season, when we won 36 games, lost 2 and drew 2 to become national champions.
“Chrissy and Natalie each had different strengths and skill sets,” Holderson says, “but when they came together… it was magical.”
