Picking “Bonus 5″ Greatest Games in Pens’ history is not easy

As promised in yesterday’s post, a quintet of “bonus material” in the form of five additional memorable games from Penguins’ history, is presented here.  The only restriction used when scouring the annals of the black and gold was to ensure that any game already used in “Pittsburgh Penguins: 10 Greatest Games” and games on the voting list for “Greatest Games, Vol. 2” were excluded from consideration.

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1. April 12, 1970: “First Playoff Hero” - Penguins 3 at Oakland Seals 2 (1 OT). Game 4, West Division Semifinal.  The Pens’ first playoff hero was a 20-year old from Malartic, Quebec whose sky-is-the-limit potential was tragically cut short after just one NHL season.  Michel Briere, the team’s top rookie, gave Pittsburgh a sweep of its first ever playoff series when he scored the overtime winner to eliminate the Seals.  When the club’s plane landed at Greater Pittsburgh Airport the following night at 9.30 pm, they were greeted by hundreds of fans including the team mascot and members of the Penguins Booster Club.  Briere returned to Quebec in the off-season, looking forward to his late-spring wedding.  Unfortunately, just weeks before he was to be married, he suffered severe head injuries in a car accident.  He was in a coma for the next 11 months and exactly one year and one day after his goal in Oakland, he passed away.

2. December 31, 1988: “Auld Lemieux Syne” - Devils 6 at Pittsburgh 8.  Mario Lemieux creates his own line in the record book by scoring five goals in five different ways: even-strength, power play, shorthanded, penalty shot and empty net.  His goal on the penalty kill that night demonstrated his concentration, strength and speed.  He accelerated through the neutral zone, arced toward the goal with a defender draped over him, then banked the puck off the far leg of the goaltender and into the net.  This was the first of four 5-goal games in Super Mario’s great career with his next Supermariofecta* coming in the playoffs against Philadelphia later that season (that game was part of the original “Greatest Games” DVD).  This memorable New Year’s Eve outburst sealed his reputation as the only true rival in that era of Wayne Gretzky in terms of skill and production.

3. May 2, 1999: “Double J’s Biggest Save” - Devils 2 at Pittsburgh 3 (1 OT). Game 6, Eastern Conference Quarterfinal. With disturbing rumours that the financially-troubled Penguins might not be able to meet its payroll commitments if they failed to win the opening playoff round and with a bankruptcy/dissolution scheme hanging over the team, captain Jaromir Jagr rescued the underdog Pens’ season and bought Mario Lemieux and his group of investors time to work out a deal to purchase the team.  Just 2:12 remained in the third period and possibly in the life of Pittsburgh NHL hockey when Jagr scored his first goal of the series to tie the game 2-2.  The Czech superstar had missed Games 2-5 with a groin injury.  Less than nine minutes into the first overtime period, fellow Czech forward Martin Straka sent him a perfect pass and Jagr did not hesitate and flipped it over a sprawling Martin Brodeur.  The stunned #1-seeded Devils lost the deciding Game 7 on home ice two nights later.

4. May 4, 2000: “All that work for nothing” - Flyers 2 at Pittsburgh 1 (5 OT). Game 4, Eastern Conference Semifinal. The Penguins looked to have the advantage on their cross-state rivals after winning the first two games of the series in Philadelphia.  The Flyers won a one-period overtime contest in Game 3 in Pittsburgh, but nobody could have anticipated how the two clubs would take overtime to an entirely new level two nights later.  Keith Primeau scored at 12:01 of the fifth overtime period on the Flyers’ 72nd shot of the night to give the exhausted visitors a win and a 2-2 tie in the series over the exhausted and crushed hosts.  It was the third-longest game in NHL history and both goalies played magnificently.  Penguin Ron Tugnutt made 70 saves while Philadelphia counterpart Brian Boucher stopped 57 shots.

5. May 4, 2009: ”Anything you can do, I can do” - Penguins 3 at Washington 4. Game 2, Eastern Conference Semifinal.  The first head-to-head playoff series between Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin lived up to its hype.  Sid the Kid and Alexander the Great both scored hat tricks as the Capitals prevailed to take a 2-0 series lead to Pittsburgh.  Crosby’s playoff-leading 6th, 7th and 8th goals were all scored at the perimeter of the crease by battling for the puck and relentlessly pouncing on rebounds.  Ovechkin’s trio of goals showed his sheer power.  The latter two gave Washington the lead for good and came from heavy slapshots unloaded from the circles and slot.  During the seven-game epic, Crosby edged Ovechkin in goals 8-7 and the Pens prevailed in the series on their way to winning the Stanley Cup.

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* From horse racing, an exacta = 2, trifecta = 3 and superfecta = 4.  Logically, a Supermariofecta must equal 5 goals.