For the next month, I will take you on an adventure through my brain during some of the most intense sporting events I have watched in my entire life. All these events have made me the fan I have become today.
This is the story of Game 5 of the 2008 Stanley Cup Final.
Hockey is hard to explain to people in the South. No one seems to be open minded and willing to learn anything other than football. That is why all through high school, I never took the time to explain it to someone because I just thought they would shrug it off as a sport that no one cares about. Then I met a guy named Michael Allen.
He would look over my shoulder in our newspaper class as I looked at stats and standings. In my mind I always thought, "Could I get him to like hockey?"
The playoffs rolled around and I acted upon what I thought was a great opportunity. Neither of us were cool enough to have girlfriends, so we pretty much did whatever we wanted on any given day. I invited him to watch Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final vs. the Flyers where the Penguins advanced to the Stanley Cup Final. He asked lots of questions and seemed to want to be apart of this.
I left to travel home to Weirton, West Virginia, where I watched the first two games of the series with my family up home. I never imagined he would watch them without me. The Penguins got murdered in the first two games and they did not even score a goal. The mighty Detroit Red Wings just seemed to be too much for the Pens. I arrived home in time for Game 3 and Michael and I watched it together. Sidney Crosby buried two goals and we won our first game of the series. It was so nice to have some hope.
Game 4 destroyed that hope. The Red Wings were running away with the series and they only needed one more win to take home Lord Stanley's Cup.
Game 5 was being played in Detroit, and Mike was coming over to my house for the game. Although most of my belief in winning it all was gone, you cannot really ever give up on your team. Back in day, Michael and I used to go on some Mountain Dew runs and you can bet we did before the game started.
Center Ice. Puck Drop. Let's Do This.
Michael and I were watching the game in my room, on my tiny 19" inch television that was HD. I was so proud of it. The Penguins came out with a purpose because they were fully aware that the dream could end tonight. Pens forward Marian Hossa threw a shot off of Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood's arm and then we had the Red Wings on their heels. Hossa worked his way to the middle and the Pens struck first blood.
Over the years, Michael and I's celebrations have changed a whole lot. This one was just a high five. If this happened today I would have tackled him to the ground with the biggest bro-hug ever.
Six minutes later, the Pens' Adam Hall scores, but not really. One of the Red Wings players scored on his own net trying to get the puck out of harms way.
The Red Wings were angry and if you know anything about them, they never go away this easy. The second period pretty much started with the Red Wings dominating and Darren Helm sending a wrist shot right into the net. The lead has been cut in half.
In the third, The Red Wings caught fire. Two goals in the first ten minutes of the period made the score 3-2. It looked as if the Stanley Cup dream was finally over. With under a minute remaining, I had given up hope. We had to pull our goalie so we could have an extra attacker on the ice, in a last ditch effort to score. Then, it happened.
Michael and I go nuts. The Red Wings fail to score with the time remaining and we are going to overtime. In the regular season, NHL overtimes are five minutes then if no one scores, there is a shootout. But in playoff hockey, you play twenty minute overtimes until someone scores.
The first overtime began and it was so nerve-racking. This is sudden-death and if we win, we get one more game. If we lose, the Wings get to raise the cup right there. That is the last thing Michael and I wanted. Our goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury was making unreal saves to keep our cup hopes alive. After a frantic first overtime, no one had scored. Detroit had outshot us in that period, 13-2.
The second overtime had begun and it was getting pretty late. The game started around 7 and it was now 11 o'clock. The Penguins and Red Wings trade chances instead of the Pens letting Detroit have their way with them. The shots total 8-7 in favor of the Penguins at the end of the second OT.
"I gotta go home man," Michael says as I look at my clock. It is a little after midnight and at the time we both had curfews. It was sad because I could tell he did not want to leave. He drove home and I called him at the start of the third overtime.
Penguins winger Petr Sykora said that he was going to score the winner in an interview with NBC's Pierre McGuire before the 3rd OT began. It seemed that he was half-joking and it was some nice comic relief on a night that had little to laugh about. About halfway through the period, a four minute penalty was called on the Red Wings' Jiri Hudler, giving the Penguins and Sykora a chance to win the game on the power play.
The game ended around 1 AM. Not many days go by without either Michael or myself impersonating Mike "Doc" Emrick's call of Sykora's goal. "SAID HE WOULD GET THE WINNER AND HE DID!" are the words that simply define our friendship.
The Penguins lost in Game 6 and Detroit raised the cup in front of our home crowd. It hurt, but I will never forget the emotion and joy Game 5 brought me.
As for Michael, you bet he was there with me next season and for many seasons to come.
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