Brad Shelstad is a retired

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player. He captained

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to its first

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1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

winning the Tournament MOP in the process.

Career

Shelstad joined the

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 25 (12 men's, 13 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Te ...

after winning the 1970 state championship for Southwest HS. He played in 15 games during his freshman year, sharing goaltending duties with fellow freshman Dennis Erickson, but was relegated to a backup role by the end of the season. Minnesota would reach the NCAA Championship game despite holding a losing record (the only team to do so as of 2019). The following year saw Shelstad's workload reduced to just six appearances but, critically, after a 1–7 start head coach Glen Sonmor resigned and was replaced by

Ken Yackel Kenneth James Yackel (March 5, 1930 – July 12, 1991) was an American ice hockey player. Yackel played for the American national team at the 1952 Winter Olympics. He briefly played professionally in the National Hockey League, appearing in six ...

for the remainder of the year. Erickson would depart after the season leaving Shelstad as the most senior goaltender on the team. Incoming head coach Herb Brooks put his trust in Shelstad, allowing the junior netminder to take the lead in net and play in 23 games. While the team performed poorly, finishing a game under .500, Shelstad improved immensely, posting a

goals against average Goals against average (GAA) also known as "average goals against" or "AGA" is a statistic used in field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, and water polo that is the mean of goals allowed per game by a goaltender or goalkeeper (depending on s ...

of 3.30 and a save percentage of .906, finishing in the top ten among NCAA goalies. Shelstad was named as team captain in 1973–74, the last Minnesota goaltender to have that honor, and continued to improve his game. After a slow start Shelstad got the gophers to produce their first winning season since 1970 and again finished among the best goaltenders in the nation. Shelstad played in 34 games in his final year, a new program record (since broken) and led the Gophers back to the NCAA tournament. Despite not being considered a threat for the national championship, Minnesota beat

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

in the semifinal before Shelstad stifled the nation's top offense in

Michigan Tech Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech, MTU, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Houghton, Michigan, founded in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, the first post-secondary institution in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. ...

to give Minnesota its first national title. Shelstad was named as the most outstanding player of the tournament. After graduating Shelstad played briefly for both the US national team and the

Fort Wayne Komets The Fort Wayne Komets are a minor league ice hockey team in the ECHL. They play their home games at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This team was previously a member of the Central Hockey League, the original Inte ...

before retiring as a player. Shelstad turned to coaching soon after and became the head coach for New Prague High School in 1979 then moved to Wadena-Deer Creek Senior High School in 1985, coaching the Wolverines for another 13 seasons. Shelstad was inducted into the Minnesota Hockey Coaches Hall of Fame in 2006 and was ranked by mnhockeyhub.com as the 26th best high school player in state history.

Awards and honors

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shelstad, Brad 1952 births Living people American men's ice hockey goaltenders Ice hockey people from Minneapolis Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey players Fort Wayne Komets players NCAA men's ice hockey national champions