This is a fantastic episode where you will learn about Darren's Journey to the NHL. Darren Jensen was called up to the NHL under the worst of circumstances. The Flyers Vezina Trophy-winning goalie, Pelle Lindbergh, had died in a car crash Nov. 11, 1985, and Jensen was next on the depth chart.

Jensen was playing for the American League’s Hershey Bears and was in Sherbrooke for a game against the Canadiens. Bears coach John Paddock gave him the news and drove Jensen to the airport, where a private jet whisked him away for a game against the Oilers. Flyers GM Bobby Clarke and coach Mike Keenan were waiting. “I wanted to go on the ice in the morning, just to practise with the guys, get a feel of the NHL caliber before I went into the hornet’s nest,” Jensen says. “They said no, there was too much press, ‘You have to go back to the hotel.’ ”

Jensen and Bob Froese, Lindberg’s backup, made the best of a bad situation and actually came out as the William M. Jennings Trophy winners that season with a league-low 241 goals allowed. Jensen’s sense of humor helped him fit in immediately with the tight Flyers squad, which had lost to the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup final the season before.

Jensen, who was drafted 92nd overall in 1980 by the Hartford Whalers, had plenty of success before reaching the NHL. He backstopped North Dakota to two NCAA championships (1980 and 1982) and excelled with the IHL’s Fort Wayne Komets in 1983-84. That season he led the league in GAA and was named a first-team all-star, rookie of the year and the league’s MVP.