Steven Mark Christoff (born January 23, 1958) is an American former professional

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

forward who played 248 regular season games in the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

with the

Minnesota North Stars The Minnesota North Stars were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 26 seasons, from 1967 to 1993. The North Stars played their home games at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, and the team's colors fo ...

Calgary Flames The Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Calgary. The Flames compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference, and are the third major professional ice hockey tea ...

, and

Los Angeles Kings The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference and was founded on June 5, 1967, after Jack Kent ...

in 1980–84. Christoff is best known for being a member of the "

Miracle on Ice The "Miracle on Ice" was an ice hockey game during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. It was played between the hosting United States and the Soviet Union on February 22, 1980, during the medal round of the men's hockey tournam ...

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Syst ...

U.S. Olympic hockey team that won the gold medal.

Biography

Amateur career

Steve Christoff grew up in

Richfield, Minnesota Richfield is a suburban city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States near the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Minnesota River at Fort Snelling. An inner ring suburb of Minneapolis, it is bordered by Minneapolis to the north, ...

and graduated from Richfield High School. As a member of the Richfield High School hockey team, he earned team MVP his junior and senior year, and was selected to the Minnesota High School All-State First Team and the U.S. High School All-American Team during his senior year in 1975-76. He led his school to a state runner-up his senior season and was one of the most highly recruited U.S. hockey players in 1976. Before turning professional, Christoff attended the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

where he played for the

Minnesota 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 ...

for three seasons, from 1976–79. He led the team in scoring during his second year with 66 points (32 goals and 34 assists) and was named to the WCHA All-Star Second Team. During his third year, he led the team in scoring again with 77 points (38 goals and 39 assists). In what turned out to be his last collegiate game on March 23, 1979, Christoff scored a goal and earned an assist to help Minnesota win its third

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

title in school history with a 4-3 victory over

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, S ...

. He made his international debut for Team USA at the 1979 Ice Hockey World Championship tournament in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Professional career

Christoff was selected 24th overall in the 1978 NHL Entry Draft by the

. He joined the North Stars for 20 games after the Olympics, scoring eight goals and 15 points. The next year, he suited up for 56 games, netting 26 goals and 39 points and was one of the Stars' best performers as Minnesota lost the 1981 Stanley Cup finals to the

New York Islanders The New York Islanders (colloquially known as the Isles) are a professional ice hockey team based in Elmont, New York. The Islanders compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference ( ...

. He also participated in the

1981 Canada Cup The 1981 Labatt Canada Cup was the second best-on-best ice hockey world championship and involved the world's top six hockey nations. Tournament games were held in Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal and Ottawa. The Soviet Union defeated Canada in a sin ...

tournament as a member of Team USA. In 1981–82, Christoff appeared in 69 games, scoring 26 goals and 55 points, a career high. Although he was an extremely popular figure in Minnesota, Christoff was traded to the

for the 1982–83 season, but he was used in just 45 games, scoring nine goals and 17 points. In 1983–84, Christoff played his final season in the NHL, with the Los Angeles Kings, starting 58 games.

Post hockey career

Christoff recently retired as an airline pilot for Minneapolis-based

Endeavor Air Endeavor Air is an American regional airline that operates as Delta Connection for Delta Air Lines. The airline was founded as Express Airlines I in 1985 and was renamed Pinnacle Airlines in 2002. In 2012, Pinnacle's parent company filed for Cha ...

since retiring from hockey. He was named one of the 50 greatest players in University of Minnesota hockey history as part of "Legends on Ice" tribute in 2001.

In popular culture

In the

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major off ...

TV movie about the gold medal-winning hockey team entitled ''

'', Christoff's character is played by Rick Rockwell, but is not listed in the film's credits. The model for the

Hobey Baker Award The Hobey Baker Award is an annual award given to the top National Collegiate Athletic Association men's ice hockey player. It has been awarded 41 times. It is named for Hall of Famer Hobey Baker, who played college hockey at Princeton University ...

trophy was Steve Christoff, who played for Richfield Minnesota High School, the University of Minnesota, the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team and in the

. Scott Johnson portrayed Christoff in the

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

film ''

Miracle A miracle is an event that is inexplicable by natural or scientific lawsOne dictionary define"Miracle"as: "A surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divi ...

''.

Awards and achievements

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

*
Christoff's bio at hockeydraftcentral.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christoff, Steve 1958 births 1980 US Olympic ice hockey team American men's ice hockey centers Calgary Flames players Commercial aviators Ice hockey players from Minnesota Ice hockey players at the 1980 Winter Olympics Living people Los Angeles Kings players Medalists at the 1980 Winter Olympics Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey players Minnesota North Stars draft picks Minnesota North Stars players Oklahoma City Stars players Olympic gold medalists for the United States in ice hockey People from Richfield, Minnesota Sportspeople from Springfield, Illinois NCAA men's ice hockey national champions