Sunday, April 06, 2008
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Penguins
Cup celebration in 1992
Sometime in the next few days, the Penguins will begin to manufacture a fresh batch of playoff memories.
Perhaps the snapshots that come out of their 2008 run, however long it lasts, will be sweet. Something their fans can savor for years.
Maybe they will be bitter, the kind that cannot fade quickly enough.
Four decades after the Penguins entered the league, the most enduring playoff memories for many of their fans -- at least the ones who are old enough -- likely are of their Stanley Cup-clinching victories in 1991 and 1992.
The first was an 8-0, Game 6 blowout at Minnesota, the second a 6-5, Game 4 squeaker in Chicago that ended with the Blackhawks pressing for a goal that would have forced overtime.
Both buildings where the Penguins won their championships -- the Met Center in Bloomington, Minn. and Chicago Stadium -- are gone now. Memories of what the Penguins achieved in those places will endure.
But while title-clinching victories are a franchise's signature triumphs, they aren't the only indelible impressions left during the Penguins' first 213 games of playoff hockey. Among the others:
• Frank Pietrangelo's glove stop on New Jersey's Peter Stastny during Game 6 of Round 1 in 1991. Known almost immediately -- and forever remembered -- as The Save, Pietrangelo's play made it possible for the Penguins to survive the opening round and eventually earn their first rings.
• Any number of Mario Lemieux goals. Lemieux splitting North Stars defensemen Neil Wilkinson and Shawn Chambers before scoring on Jon Casey during the 1991 final. Putting the puck between Boston defenseman Ray Bourque's legs en route to beating Andy Moog in the 1992 Wales Conference final. Knocking in a Larry Murphy rebound with 12.6 seconds left in regulation of Game 1 of the 1992 final.
• Legendary Tim Horton kicking the puck into his own net 12 seconds into overtime of Game 4 against Chicago at the Civic Arena in 1972. That goal, officially credited to Blackhawks center Pit Martin, completed a sweep for heavily favored Chicago, but two of those games were decided by one goal and the other two by two.
• Petr Nedved's quadruple-overtime goal through traffic that lifted the Penguins past Washington in Game 4 of the opening round at the Capital Centre in 1996.
• Ron Francis scoring from center ice against Mike Richter during the third period in Game 4 of the Penguins' second-round series against the New York Rangers in 1992. That goal altered the course of the game and, ultimately, the series, most of which the Penguins played without Lemieux and Joe Mullen.
• Florida's Tom Fitzgerald launching a shot from just inside the blue line and having it elude Tom Barrasso to break a 1-1 tie early in the third period of Game 7 at the Civic Arena in the 1996 conference final. That went down as the series-winner when the Panthers took home a 3-1 victory.
• Left winger Kevin Stevens standing in the middle of a steamy locker room at Boston Garden after a 5-4 overtime loss to the Bruins in Game 2 of the 1991 conference final and guaranteeing -- loudly, and repeatedly -- that the Penguins would rally from a 2-0 deficit and win the series. Which they did.
• George Ferguson's goal 47 seconds into overtime of Game 3 in the opening round against Buffalo at Memorial Auditorium in 1979, giving the Penguins a stunning first-round triumph against the Sabres.
• Mike Crombeen's double-overtime goal in the final game that allowed St. Louis to survive a best-of-five opening-round series in 1981.
• Jaromir Jagr's gutty performance near the end of Game 6 in Round 1 against New Jersey in 1999 when, hobbled by a bad groin and with the Penguins about a minute from elimination, he scored to put the game into overtime, then got the winner in a 3-2 victory. The Penguins then went on the road and claimed a berth in the second round.
• Michel Briere's overtime winner in Game 4 against Oakland in 1970. It was the first overtime goal in franchise history and clinched the team's first series win.
• All the Penguins' last-game heartbreakers against the New York Islanders. Eddie Westfall's third-period goal that was the only one by either team in Game 7 in 1975, when New York became the second team in league history to overcome a 3-0 deficit. Game 5 in 1982, when the Penguins came closer than any team did to aborting the Islanders' four-Cup dynasty, only to have John Tonelli end the game in overtime after Mike Bullard of the Penguins failed to do so on a breakaway. And, of course, David Volek's overtime winner in Game 7 in 1993, when the Penguins -- the finest team in franchise history -- had their bid for a third consecutive Cup end abruptly and painfully.
• Lemieux's eight-point performance against Philadelphia during a 10-7 victory in Game 5 of the second round in 1989. That victory gave the Penguins a 3-2 lead in the series, but a late Flyers surge generated momentum that carried them to victories in Games 6 and 7, the latter of which was won in Pittsburgh by backup goalie Ken Wregget.
• Keith Primeau's goal from the right circle in the fifth overtime of Game 4 in the second round in 2000. That gave the Flyers consecutive overtime victories in Pittsburgh, allowing them to rally from a 2-0 deficit and win the series in six.
• Stevens being knocked unconscious by a hit from Islanders defenseman Rich Pilon in the first period of Game 7 in 1993, then landing face-first on the ice and suffering horrific injuries that required extensive surgery to repair and effectively ended Stevens' run as a dominant power forward.
• Jagr's breathtaking individual effort with less than five minutes to play in Game 1 of the 1992 final, when he got by Chicago's Stephane Matteau just inside the blue line and eluded Brent Sutter and Dirk Graham before moving from the left circle toward the slot. He slipped past defenseman Frantisek Kucera and got a timely pick from Shawn McEachern before beating Eddie Belfour to cap the Penguins' comeback from being down, 4-1, and set up Lemieux's late-game winner.
• The utterly improbable goal Darius Kasparaitis, who has two goals in 83 career playoff games, scored on future Hall of Famer Dominik Hasek in OT of Game 7 during the second round against Buffalo in 2001. A goal that is, at least for the moment, the Penguins' most recent series-winner.
First published on April 6, 2008 at 12:00 am
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