A missing glog?

I am sorry I didn't glog last night. I know, you are probably thankful that I didn't, but last night's hockey game was literally a textbook on why I like the game so much, as well as possibly falling into the pantheon of one of the greatest games in Pittsburgh sports history. That may seem over the top from a city that has produced Stanley Cup Winners, Super Bowl winners and World Series champions, but the people, the drama and the game all converged in one glorious moment to provide something that is rarely seen in sports played on such a grand stage.

For those that don't know, last night was game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings, with Detroit leading the series 3 games to 1. A win by Detroit and the series is over, Detroit wins the Stanley Cup, a Pittsburgh win and the series comes back to Pittsburgh for a game 6. The game was a back and forth affair, Pittsburgh jumps out to a 2-0 lead, Detroit rallies back to take the lead at 3-2, Pittsburgh scores to send the game to overtime at 3-3 and after two and a half overtime periods Pittsburgh scores halfway through the third overtime to win 4-3. That is the basic rundown of what happened, but the unpackaged version of the story tells a far greater tale.

Pittsburgh started the game well, pretty much dominating the play in bouncing out to a 2-0 lead. Whether Detroit just was lethargic to start the game or unprepared I am not sure, but early on it looked like Pittsburgh would win the contest in a walk. Early in the second period Detroit would start to dominate the action, a theme that would continue from the second period all the way through the first overtime, and slowly they would chip away at the 2 goal deficit they faced, notching their first goal in the second period. The most noteworthy thing that would happen to the Penguins in that period would be late in the second when a slap shot by Hal Gill would smash right off of the face of Ryan Malone, who went down as if he was shot. Mind you, Malone has already had his nose broken this series and as soon as the puck hit him, his face again started gushing blood. The referees were quickly there to get Malone off of the ice before his injury became an even bigger spectacle that it was. The thing is, this is hockey, not some pansy sport, so starting the third period, there was Malone again, back on the ice.

The thrid period was much like the second, Detroit dominating the action, and in the process scoring two more goals to take a 3-2 lead in the game. The only thing that kept it from being worse than it was was the stellar play of Penguins goaltender Marc Andre Fluery, who would turn away 55 shots through the course of the game, and almost single handedly give Pittsburgh at least a glimmer of hope in the contest. Still the clock was ticking away on what remained of the Penguins season and the crowd in Detroit was sensing that the home team was about to be crowned Stanley Cup Champions, as was much of the viewing audience. The actual Stanley Cup was brought to rinkside in anticipation of the celebration, the hat and T shirts with Detroit Red Wings - Stanley Cup Champions were being readied for the players, the celebratory champagne was on ice and then the unthinkable happened. With less than a minute to go, the Penguins pulled their goaltender for an extra attacker. For those unfamiliar with hockey, each team is allowed six players on the ice, usually a center, two forwards, two defensemen and a goaltender. When a team is trailing late in a close game, they may opt to pull their goaltender and replace him with an extra attacking player to try to tie the game. The strategy is problematic as it leaves the goal completely unguarded, and more often than not it results in a team having an empty net goal scored against it, yet that was the situation the Penguins would find themselves in, so the Penguins went ahead and pulled Fluery. With the crowd going wild and the Stanley Cup mere clicks away, the unthinkable to the Detroit faithful happened, the extra attacker the Penguins put on the ice, Maxim Talbot, scored the game tying goal with 35 seconds remaining. What is amazing about that, besides the drama involved in scoring the tying goal is that earlier in the playoffs Talbot had his foot broken when it was struck by a shot puck. He began skating on the broken foot two days later and now here he was, foot still broken and all, scoring the tying goal that for the moment was extending the Penguins season.

Also of note during the period, Sergei Gonchar, arguably the Penguins best defenseman (certainly their best puck handling defenseman at least) left the game when he dove to help disrupt a breakaway coming in on his net, and slid head first into the boards. The result was that he was sent to the back to see how bad he was hurt, but without him on the ice, getting the puck out of their own end (save for the tying goal) would be a problem for the Penguins for the next 30 or so minutes. Even after scoring the tying goal and sending the game to its first overtime period, the first OT would see the Penguins outshot by a total of 13-2, and again it was Fluery who kept the Penguins season alive in that first overtime period.

The second overtime would see a little more balanced play by the clubs, the shot totals were a little more even. Perhaps it had something to do with what the Peguins did during the first overtime intermission, when they ordered in Domino's pizza and had it delivered. Usually on gameday, a team will eat their big meal around 1pm for a 8 o'clock start, so by the time the first overtime period was over, you're looking at not having eaten in about 9-10 hours, save for the typical fluids that team will drink during the course of the game, while at the same time going at it in a game that can be draining to say the least. Players were changing their jerseys, as the ones that had on were weighed down with sweat, the ice in the building gets worse, as the heat from the building starts to really affect the quality of ice on the rink at this point, making pucks that normally would be tape to tape passes, dance and hop across the ice and much harder to control.  Legs get heavier with the constant end to end skaing that is involved in hockey, all of which combines to make playoff hockey less an artistic game of skill and more just a battle of attrition.

Finally, the third overtme period starts, after 1 hour and 40 minutes of hockey, all we have determined at this point is that we are still tied. As the players file out of the dressing room for the third overtime to begin, the Penguins Petr Sykora tells one of the NBC announcers covering the game that he is going to score the game winner. Perhaps this was a little false bravado, for Sykora took a two minute hooking penalty late in the second overtime period that nearly cost the Penguins the game, the only thing saving them while being down 5 on 4 was again the stellar play of Fleury. Roughly halfway through the third overtime, the Penguins get a power play opportunity as Jiri Hudler's stick caught Rob Scuderi under the chin, resulting in a high sticking penalty. When asked about his thoughts about the penalty after the game, Scuderi said that he was praying that their was blood. In hockey, their are basically four types of penalties, their is a game misconduct, which in laymen's terms is an unsportsmnalike penalty that usually gets you tossed from the game, their are 5 minute major penalties, this is usually a boarding call and is when you ram a player head first into the side or end boards, and this type of penalty allows a team so score as many goals as it can with the man advantage in a 5 minute span, and there are 2 and 4 minute minor penalties, these penalties last for the duration of the time limit unless the team with the man advantage scores, then the penalty ends and both teams again play at even strength. The difference between 2 and 4 minutes is blood, a typical minor gets two minutes unless the infraction draws blood, then it is four, so Scuderi was hoping that he was busted open on the high stick just so his team could get an extra two minutes of attacking time. His prayers were answered, as his chin was busted open and a 4 minute minor was called. The Penguins trotted out their power play unit and their on the ice was Sergei Gonchar, he of the head first dive into the boards to help prevent a goal during regulation was back on the ice to assist on the power play. And he did, he picked up the primary assist on the game winning goal that the Penguins scored on the power play that would send the series back to Pittsburgh for game 6. And the person who scored the game winner? That would be Petr Sykora who said he was going to prior to the start of the third overtime.

Noen of this guarantees anything, Detroit could still win game 6 or 7 and win the Stanley Cup, the Penguins will have to win both, but in a city that reveres in its sports nostalgia, such as Bill Mazeroski's World Series clinching homerun, or Franco Harris and the Immaculate Reception, last night's game certainly belongs alongside those great moments.