Stanley Cup Final - Game 5: Penguins - 4, Red Wings 3 (3OT)

OMG! OMG! OMG!!! At close to 1 am, I'm tired and trying my hardest to stay awake and then it happens... and I fall out of my chair, onto my knees, screaming and shedding tears of joy. I have not experienced a game so intense and emotional since Game 7 of the 2001 Eastern Semis against Buffalo. Wow! I thought it was over. It felt like it was over. The series. Our season. Our dream. I thought it was over. The Penguins gave up a two-goal lead and trailed 3-2 to the Red Wings with less than a minute left in what seemed like our season. The Detroit crowd was ready to welcome the Stanley Cup. But then with Marc-Andre Fleury pulled, Max Talbot and the Pittsburgh Penguins said, "NO! WE ARE NOT DONE!" Talbot scored with 34 seconds left sending the game into overtime. It was an overtime that would go into 3 rounds. The Penguins and the Red Wings would end up playing a 2nd game tonight. Sudden death is what they call it and that's exactly what it felt like. I couldn't breathe. I was too scared to. Any shot, any bounce, any hit could end this and it would be over. But the Penguins refused to go down without a fight. Sergei Gonchar was lost to injury. Without our top defenseman, the rest of our core stepped up like they did so many times this season. Fleury was incredible! He was the main reason we were still even in the game. The ending was as storybook as you could imagine. Gonchar came back to help the powerplay, even though he was in pain. And Petr Sykora, who had been invisible all series, said on national television that he would score the winning goal... and he did. He called it! Amazing! The goal was a beautiful shot off a precise pass from Evgeni Malkin. After much lackluster play, the Malkin-Sykora combo finally showed up and at the time the team needed them the most. I'm so proud of these guys right now. This game will go down in Penguins lore. The Red Wings were ready to hoist the Cup and we took the moment away from them. "Not yet", we said. We are still in this!

14 wins down, 2 to go!