Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Cullen to Play 1,000th NHL Game

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Matt Cullen, veteran of five NHL teams since his college career at St. Cloud State, is poised to skate in his 1,000th career game Tuesday night for the Minnesota Wild.

Cullen will become the 43th former college hockey player to play 1,000 NHL games and just the second former Husky, following his former teammate with the Carolina Hurricanes, Bret Hedican (1,039 games).

“I cannot get over how fast it’s gone,” Cullen told Kent Youngblood of the Minneapolis Star Triubune in a feature on his career. “Unbelievable. It makes you realize you have to enjoy it.”

College Players with 1,000 NHL Games | Star Tribune Feature

Cullen was better than a point-per-game player during his two seasons in St. Cloud, playing for former head coach Craig Dahl and assistant coach Tom Serratore (now Bemidji State’s head coach). He led the team in scoring both seasons, putting up 41 points as a freshman and 45 as a sophomore.

Meanwhile, he worked tirelessly to improve his skating. Cullen told Youngblood that one of the reasons he chose to attend St. Cloud State was because of the Olympic-sized ice surface at the National Hockey Center, which would force him to work on his skating.

“The things it takes to play 1,000 games usually happen when the lights are off and nobody is around,” Hedican told Youngblood. “That’s when you go to tghe gym, get your training in.”

Immediate Impact

Cullen reached the NHL in his first year as a pro, 1997-98, and has played more than 55 games in each season since then, topping 75 games nine times.

The second-round selection of Anaheim in 1996 had his best seasons with Carolina, where he scored 25 goals and won the Stanley Cup in 2005-06.

He is now in his second season with his homestate team, the Wild, and will get to play game 1,000 at home Tuesday against San Jose.