It was March 24, 1996. It was the NCAA West Regional semifinal. Mike Legg of the Michigan Wolverines took the puck behind the Minnesota net and surveyed the scene. Two Gophers were standing on the other side of the goal, waiting to see what the Michigan forward was going to do.

He was outnumbered. Teammate Bobby Hayes was to his right fighting for position with a Minnesota player. The other two Gophers who could have defended the play made the mistake of turning their heads to check their surroundings for Wolverines players who could become passing options for Legg.

It was then that Legg bent down on his stick, scooped the puck up and whipped it over the shoulder of Minnesota goaltender Steve DeBus. The netminder didn’t know what was coming and in his delayed reaction threw his glove hand up while Michigan players were already raising their arms in celebration.

Believe it or not, the Wolverines were trailing in that game when Legg decided to pull off what has been known as “The Michigan” ever since that Sunday afternoon at Munn Ice Arena on the campus of Michigan State University.

The play went the mid-90’s version of viral since the game was broadcast on ESPN in the U.S. It won a 1997 ESPY Award for “Outrageous Play of the Year.” Swedish hockey magazine “Inside Hockey” named it the “Goal of the Year.” TSN voted it “Play of the Year.” Legg’s stick spent time in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

Legg and the Wolverines would go on to win the national title a week later over Colorado College, thanks to an overtime goal from Brendan Morrison. But the lasting memory for many from the 1996 tournament would be the lacrosse goal scored by the junior forward from Michigan.

It was a move most had never seen before — except, less than 24 hours before Legg introduced it to much of the hockey world, a minor leaguer was doing it for the sixth time.

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Bill Armstrong was a minor league lifer. Following three years at Western Michigan University, the Philadelphia Flyers signed the undrafted winger and he would spend the next three seasons in the American Hockey League with the Hershey Bears.

Armstrong did make it to The Show, but only once, for a Feb. 18, 1991 game against the Chicago Blackhawks — a 5-3 Flyers win that saw the 24-year-old record an assist on a Scott Mellanby goal.

After one more year in Hershey, Armstrong spent the 1992-93 season in Utica and Cincinnati, playing in both the AHL and IHL before landing with the Albany River Rats in 1993.

During summers, Armstrong would work at London, Ont. hockey schools and while looking to make use of some downtime during sessions he’d mess around with the puck, lifting it up on his stick and creating a shot attempt — what is known as the “lacrosse move.” It was then that the thought crossed his mind: “How can I turn this into an actual scoring play?”

“Initially I just started picking it up on the fly and kind of flipping it over my shoulder, similar to a lacrosse-style play,” Armstrong told Yahoo Sports. “Then one day at the hockey school I told the kids to do a down and back or something and I was standing right beside the net. I leaned down, picked up the puck and kind of wrapped it into the net and I thought, ‘Oh, geez, that might be a play I can use in a game.’”

But first Armstrong had to ensure that the play itself was legal. As long as his stick didn’t go above the height of the crossbar, there was no rule preventing him from doing it.

Pulling off the lacrosse-style move is a risky one. Be successful and you’re a legend. Mess it up and you’re on the blooper-reel. For Armstrong, he was hesitant to try it during a game until his head coach in Albany, Robbie Ftorek, gave him the green light.

“Years prior to that I was able to do it, but I was scared to death because I would be sitting my butt on the bench,” Armstrong said. “One of the things [Ftorek] always gave us was the freedom to be creative and be a hockey player. In my lifetime, my favorite coach of all-time just because he was a great communicator and he was a good teacher and he put a lot of onus on us players to be our own gauge of what was right and what was wrong.”

Armstrong had done the move enough times in practice and just fooling around on the ice that all he needed was his coach’s approval and for an opponent to give him just a bit of room behind the net.

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