Steve Jensen Obituary, Death – Steve Jensen, an American professional ice hockey player and the owner and director of Heartland Hockey Camps, died on November 29, 2022. He was 67-year-old. Steve played offensively in the National Hockey League from 1976 to 1982, appearing in 438 games. For the past 27 years, Steve has been the founding owner and director of the Heartland Hockey Camp in Deerwood, Minnesota. He is now a full-time educator with over 30 years of experience, including 12 years of playing International and NHL hockey, five US National Teams, and the 1976 Canada Cup.
At Armstrong High School in Plymouth, Minnesota, Steve was an All-State hockey player. During his college career, he appeared in two NCAA championship games, helping Michigan Tech win the National Championship in 1975. For the second year in a row, Steve was named to the NCAA All-Tournament Team. As a freshman at MTU, Steve received the Matovich Top Student/Athlete Award. Steve began his professional career with the Minnesota North Stars, his hometown team, and in 1977, he helped the North Stars become the first team in NHL history to have four rookies score 20 or more goals. He then spent four years with the Los Angeles Kings, becoming only the fifth American to score more than 100 goals in NHL history.
Steve was the NHL’s active leading goal scorer during the 1980-81 and 1981-82 seasons. After leaving the NHL, Steve spent four seasons playing and coaching in professional leagues in Switzerland and Austria. During the 1983-84 Swiss-2 season, while playing for EVZ in Zug, Steve became the only player in Swiss history to score seven goals in a single game. He scored 61 goals in 56 games during his two seasons in Switzerland. Steve also had a lot of international experience. With 52 goals, he led the 1976 United States Olympic Hockey Team. With six goals in six games, Steve tied Russia’s Vladimir Shadrin for the tournament lead during the 1976 Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria.
Three months after the Olympics, Steve led Team USA in scoring with four goals and five assists in nine games at the 1976 World Ice Hockey Championships in Katowice, Poland. Steve was also named to the preliminary rosters for the 1979 Team USA World Championship in Vienna, Austria, and the 1981 Canada Cup teams, but turned down the opportunity to continue running his summer hockey camp. Steve did play for the US National Team, and in 1983 he won the Pool B Ice Hockey World Championships in Tokyo, Japan.