MARK JOHNSON (ICE HOCKEY)

'Mark Johnson' (b. September 22, 1957 in Minneapolis, Minnesota and raised in Madison, Wisconsin) is a former United States ice hockey player who appeared in 669 NHL regular season games between 1980 and 1990 after playing for the Gold medal winning 1980 US Olympic Hockey team.

Contents

Amateur career

International and Professional Career

Post Playing Career

Awards and Achievements

Career Statistics

See also

References

Amateur career

Johnson played for the University of Wisconsin-Madison ice hockey team for three years under his father, legendary coach Bob Johnson. In 1977, during his first year at the university, he helped the Badgers win the NCAA national championship. He was the first Badger ever to win WCHA Rookie of the year. He went on to become the school's second all-time scorer. Johnson was also a two time All-American.

International and Professional Career

Johnson made his international debut with the United States national team as an 18-year-old in 1976, when he played in 11 training games for the 1976 US Olympic ice hockey team coached by his father. He would represent the United States in 13 international tournaments (including the the 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990 Ice Hockey World Championship tournaments as well as the 1981,1984 and 1987 Canada Cup). He is most famous for being a star player on the US Olympic Hockey team at the 1980 Lake Placid winter games. Playing for the United States Of America against the Soviet Union. Johnson scored in the first period of the game, which forced the Soviet coach to take out his goalie Vladislav Tretiak, a mistake because the United States defeated them, taking the gold medal. He also scored in the third period to tie the game at 3-3.
Johnson went on to play professional hockey in the NHL for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Minnesota North Stars, Hartford Whalers, St. Louis Blues, and New Jersey Devils. His NHL accomplishments include playing in the 1984 NHL All Star game as the Whalers representative as well as serving as the Whalers team captain in 1983-85. He also played two seasons with Milan Saima SG in Italy and a final season in Austria before retiring from the game in 1992. He briefly came out of retirement to play two games for Team USA in the 1998 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships qualifying tournament at the age of 41, where he helped Team USA retain its position in the World Championships' Pool A.

Post Playing Career

Johnson is currently the head coach of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's women's hockey team, a position he has held since 2002. The team won its first NCAA national championship on March 26, 2006 and became repeat winners on March 18, 2007.
He was inducted into the Wisconsin Hockey Hall of Fame in 2001 and the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 2004.
On July 6, 2006, he was named head coach of the American women's team as part of a general reorganization of the program. His previous international coaching experience was as an assistant coach for the men's team in 2000 and 2002.

Awards and Achievements

★ Played in NHL All-Star Game (1984)

★ WCHA Freshman of the Year (1977)

★ WCHA First All-Star Team (1978, 1979)

★ NCAA West First All-American Team (1978, 1979)

★ WCHA Most Valuable Player (1979)

Career Statistics

                                  Regular Season              

Season  Team                    Lge   GP   G   A    Pts  PIM   

1979-80 Pittsburgh Penguins     NHL   17   3   5    8    4

1980-81 Pittsburgh Penguins     NHL   73   10  23   33   50

1981-82 Pittsburgh/Minnesota    NHL   56   12  13   25   40

1982-83 Hartford Whalers        NHL   73   31  38   69   28

1983-84 Hartford Whalers        NHL   79   35  52   87   27 

1984-85 Hartford/St. Louis      NHL   66   23  34   57   23

1985-86 New Jersey Devils       NHL   80   21  41   62   16

1986-87 New Jersey Devils       NHL   68   25  26   51   22

1987-88 New Jersey Devils       NHL   54   14  19   33   14

1988-89 New Jersey Devils       NHL   40   13  25   38   24

1989-90 New Jersey Devils       NHL   63   16  29   45   12

                   NHL Totals         669  203 305  508  260

See also

★ List of NHL players

★ List of NHL seasons

★ Notable families in the NHL

References

★ Mark Johnson's Legends of Hockey profile

★ Mark Johnson's hockeydraftcentral.com profile

★

★ Profile at Wisconsin Hockey Hall of Fame