CALGARY, Alberta – As a pre-teen growing up in Hopkins, Travis Boyd admits that putting on a red-and-green, Minnesota Wild sweater and playing a game for the hometown team was a dream on more than one occasion.

Signing as a free agent with the Wild over the summer, he played for them in the preseason but started October in Des Moines, playing for the Iowa Wild and not knowing if another crack at “the show” would ever come his way. When he finally got the call he had dreamed about, it was under less-than-ideal conditions for the NHL club, and, frankly, lousy weather conditions> But he made it work — even if it involved a snowy sprint in dress shoes.

Boyd had played 13 games in Iowa but, on Friday, learned that his services were needed in Calgary. The Wild were already missing forward Mats Zuccarello due to a long-term lower body injury, then they lost forwards Marat Khusnutdinov and Kirill Kaprizov in their 5-3 win in Edmonton on Thursday.

So, when Boyd got the call to the Wild, it was under emergency conditions and he was told to get to southern Alberta ASAP.

The Iowa Wild were in Grand Rapids, Mich., for a game with the Griffins. Boyd caught a flight from there to Detroit, and another from Detroit to Toronto late Friday night. He got to his Toronto hotel around midnight and was back at the airport for a 7 a.m. flight bound for Calgary on Saturday morning.

Wild team services manager Dom Hennig met Boyd at Calgary’s airport at noon on Saturday, giving them less than 90 minutes to get to Scotiabank Saddledome for warmups prior to the Wild’s 2 p.m. game with the Flames. Then the weather became a factor. Snow pelted Calgary all day on Saturday, making their ride to the rink slow and treacherous.

“Everybody was just trying to make sure I could get to the arena in time. It didn’t help that there was a snowstorm coming on,” Boyd said.

They got to within two blocks of the rink, but with faceoff now less than an hour away, the traffic was at a dead stop as an audience of better than 17,000 braved the snow to get to the game, as well. This was when Hennig and Boyd ditched the car and made a run for it.

“Dom and I literally had to get out of our car service and run down the street,” Boyd said. “There might be a funny picture coming from somebody here who was in line, but we ran the last two blocks because it was 1:05 (p.m.) and I had 25 minutes to get inside, get my gear on and get on the ice for warmups.”

Those last two blocks were a sight, with Boyd — in a suit, tie and dress shoes — running through the snow with a hockey bag on his back and Hennig trailing in his wake with Boyd’s hockey sticks. Still, they made it, and after dreaming about playing for the Wild since childhood, Boyd perhaps didn’t have time to get nervous before his debut in a Minnesota sweater.

“As a kid growing up in Minnesota, I think everybody wants the chance to put on this Minnesota Wild jersey. It certainly was no different for me and if you would’ve told me at 9 years old that this was how it was going to go, I wouldn’t have cared,” Boyd said. “I would’ve said, ‘I’m getting a chance to play for the team I grew up watching and cheering for.’ Crazy 24 hours but at the end of it, it was a very special 24 hours for me and I’m sure my family back home, as well. Chills went down my spine just thinking about that first shift and realizing what was going on.”

He got 11 shifts in the 4-3 shootout loss to the Flames, logging a little over eight minutes of ice time in his 297th career NHL regular season game. As he packed up his bag and headed for the team charter back to Minnesota on Saturday evening, Boyd couldn’t help but smile as he assessed the previous 24 hours.

“It’s been pretty wild,” he said. “A lot of travel, not a lot of sleep and not a lot of time to warm up either.”

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