As the order of Domino's pizza was rushed into the locker room in between the 2nd and 3rd overtimes, the Penguins new that this would be the fuel they were looking for. After a few slices of hawaiian, Petr Sykora fired a shot past Detroit’s Chris Osgood 9:57 into the third overtime for a power-play goal and a capper for 4 1/2 hours of terrific hockey. Sykora, prior to the start of the 3rd overtime and after a few slices of pizza, nonetheless, called the game winner saying "Guys, I'm gonna get one" and sure enough he did.“The crowd was on its feet,” writes Mitch Albom in the Detroit Free Press. “The Stanley Cup was unloaded. The crowd got louder. The Cup was readied. The crowd was deafening. The Cup was on its way. The city was dreaming about a parade, ready for the biggest hockey party in six years — and then, with the goalie pulled, with 35 seconds left — oh, gosh, it even hurts to write it — Pittsburgh’s Maxime Talbot slammed a rebound in past Chris Osgood’s left foot, and the crowd, still standing, became 20,000 people who looked as if they’d just witnessed an execution. And in some ways, they did!
Mr. Albom also gives the Penguins their due: “How could this happen, you ask? Simple. When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose. The Penguins weren’t taking a Stanley Cup home this night, no matter what. They had no pressure. No crowd to disappoint. Nothing to lose. And under such circumstances, they found their best game. The Penguins were ferocious. They never let up. They had every reason to let it go, give in to the exhaustion, the injuries, the howling crowd. Instead, showing moxie beyond their age, they kept fighting.”
The series will resume on Wednesday back in Pittsburgh at 8:00pm Eastern time, and if last night was any start of hockey greatness, Wednesday will truely tell a tale all it's own.
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