“When we [won gold], we knew it would be special, but I didn't think it would get us into the Hall of Fame,” Rick Middleton, head coach of the 2002 U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team, said.

In addition to the Hall of Fame honor, there is a documentary in the works about the team.

Middleton, who played 12 of his 14 NHL seasons with the Boston Bruins, received a call in January 2001 from friend Paul Edwards explaining that the U.S. sled team was looking for someone to coach the squad at the Paralympics. Edwards asked the obvious question: “You know what sled hockey is, right?”

Knowing a job was on the line, Middleton said he did.

“I did not have a clue what sled hockey was,” Middleton recalled. “I just heard ‘Paralympics’ and ‘hockey’ and I figured, ‘You know, sounds like it'd be fun.’”

Salt Lake City was the third time sled hockey took place at the Paralympics, but only the second tournament for the U.S.

The Americans were not one of the five teams in the field when sled hockey made its debut at the 1994 Lillehammer Paralympics. Four years later, the U.S. finished sixth out of seven teams at the 1998 Paralympic Games in Nagano, Japan. At the 2000 World Championship in Salt Lake City, the U.S. finished last out of six teams.

However, since Salt Lake City was hosting the 2002 Paralympics, the U.S. automatically qualified for the six-team tournament.

As part of the process to get the job, Middleton had to put a camp together in March 2001 in Tampa, Florida. That’s when Middleton’s secret was revealed.

“They learned that I didn't know much about sled hockey because when I was warming them up, I blew the whistle and yelled, 'Backwards,' and they all looked at me,” Middleton said. “I thought, 'They don't go backwards.' But everybody laughed and it was a pretty big joke, and it didn't cost me my job.”

A selection camp took place in August with about 30 players showing up in Buffalo, New York, for 15 Paralympic roster spots. While there was a cursory knowledge of some players, Middleton and assistant coach Tom Moulton — who, like Middleton, lived in Hampton, New Hampshire — didn’t have a history with anyone and picked the roster based on performance at the camp. Of the 15 players (13 skaters and two goaltenders) selected, 10 were new to the team.

The team would get together for four-day camps once a month in different cities for the six months before the Paralympics.

Middleton realized during scrimmages that the team didn’t have a system.

“They were all over the place,” he said.

Middleton shored up the defense and installed the “Don Cherry system” of offense of dumping the puck into the zone, chasing after it and getting the puck down low and looking for rebounds that he had learned while playing for the Bruins.

With the same countries from the 2000 World Championship participating in the Paralympics, Middleton had a lofty goal of winning the bronze medal.

Opening against Japan, the U.S. scored three third-period goals for a 3-0 triumph. The Americans followed that with a 5-1 win over Canada, the defending world champions, that gave the team all the confidence to knock off 1998 Paralympic gold medalist Norway, 2-1. The U.S. finished round-robin play with a 6-0 triumph over Sweden and a 6-1 victory against Estonia.

That all set up the gold-medal game, where the U.S. would face Norway. The Americans had a 3-1 lead early in the second period, but Norway tied it in the third to force overtime. After a scoreless OT, the teams headed for a five-round shootout.

The U.S. trailed 2-1 after the first two rounds when goaltender Manny Guerra had to return to the bench area as his team shot. Middleton, feeling he needed to say something, asked Guerra: “I go, ‘Manny, are you going to stop one?’ And he looks up with me and goes, ‘Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.’ I said, ‘Well, now would be a good time.’ And he ended up stopping the next three.”

The U.S. tied it in the third round on a goal by Chris Manns, then Kip St. Germaine scored the eventual winner in the fourth. Sylvester Flis earned Paralympic MVP honors after tallying 11 goals (two hat tricks) and seven assists for 18 points.

All gold medals are significant, but this one helped pave the way for what has become one of the most dominant teams in the world.

“We found out afterwards, I'm not sure if it's true or not, but I heard that if we had not medaled in the tournament, that the funding would probably be cut for the program,” Middleton said. “There wouldn't be any more sled hockey [in the U.S.]. Tom, my assistant, had the best line. He said we were the spark that lit the fire. Because since then, they won a bronze and four golds in a row. The winningest team in the world. We're pretty proud that we were the spark over 20 years ago that not only saved sled hockey, the national program, but to really help propel them to where they are today.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.