Dave Christian

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Olympic medal record
Men's Ice Hockey
Gold 1980 Lake Placid Team

David William Christian (born May 13, 1959 in Warroad, Minnesota) is a retired American professional ice hockey forward. Christian comes from a family of hockey players. His father Bill and uncle Roger were members of the 1960 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team that won the Gold Medal. Another uncle, Gordon Christian, was a member of the 1956 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team that won the Silver Medal. Bill and Roger also were the founders of the Christian Brothers hockey stick company based in Warroad, Minnesota.

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[edit] Amateur career

Christian grew up playing hockey, gridiron football, and baseball, as well as competing on the track and field team, at Warroad High School. He later attended the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, North Dakota where he played for the North Dakota Fighting Sioux hockey team and played in the 1979 national championship, where North Dakota lost the championship game to the University of Minnesota.

[edit] Professional and international career

Christian is best known for being a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that won the gold medal in an event known as the Miracle On Ice during the 1980 Winter Olympics. He also played for the U.S. national team at the 1981 Canada Cup as well as the 1981 Ice Hockey World Championship tournaments as an NHL rookie. His international career continued in the 1984 Canada Cup, 1989 Ice Hockey World Championship and 1991 Canada Cup tournaments.

Christian's professional hockey career started one week after the Miracle On Ice when he joined the Winnipeg Jets, who drafted him 40th overall in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft. Christian set and still holds the record for the fastest goal by a player in his first NHL game, scoring after just 7 seconds. After a roller-coaster career in Winnipeg, he went on to play in the NHL with the Washington Capitals, Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues. Between 1980 and 1993, he scored 340 goals and 433 assists in 1,009 NHL regular season games.

[edit] Post career

Christian was named head coach and general manager of the United States Hockey League Fargo-Moorhead Bears near the end of the 1997–98 season and held the positions through the 1999–2000 season.

[edit] Awards and achievements

[edit] Trivia

  • Just seven seconds into his first NHL shift, Christian electrified the sold-out Winnipeg crowd with his first professional goal.
  • Christian's family is famous for the Christian Brothers Hockey Company, makers of hockey sticks, founded in 1964 by Bill and Roger, along with Hal Bakke.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Morris Lukowich		 Winnipeg Jets captains
1981-82		 Succeeded by
Lucien DeBlois
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