Your favorite game

[skullman80]

Game 1 of the 1992 SCF finals. Pens Vs Blackhawks. A game the Pens got outplayed in from beginning to end and were down at one point 4-1, but the Hawks didn't have Mario Lemieux and that's all that mattered...

This goal from that game is one of my first Pens memories(I was 9 at the time)....and won the cup for the Pens that second time and set the tone for the series.

Take a look...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=P9STr-jICqQ

 

[God Bless Canada]

NHL Games:

*Vancouver-NYR Game 6 1994 Stanley Cup final. Arthur Griffiths said it best: the greatest game ever at the Pacific Coliseum.
*Vancouver-NYR Game 4 1994 Stanley Cup final: Yeah, the Canucks lost, but I was there.
*Calgary-Montreal, 1989 Cup final: Lanny McDonald winning the Cup in his final game will go down as one of hockey's defining moments.
*Edmonton-NYI Game 5 1984: A passing of the torch moment. One dynasty came to an end, another was born.
*Most marathon OT games from the last 20 years. Highlights include NYI-Washington 1987, NJ-Buffalo 1994, Pitt-Washington 1996, Pitt-Philly 2000 and Vancouver-Calgary 2004.
*Vancouver-Minnesota, November 12, 2001: You might be wondering why I included a 5-0 Vancouver win on the list. Simple: Trevor Linden's return to Vancouver.


International games:
*Games 6, 7 and 8 of the 1972 Summit Series: The intensity and emotion of that series has never been replicated. Canada went into Moscow and won the last three, despite the distractions from the fans, the infamous goal light incident, etc. No event has meant more to hockey history that Summit.
*Game 3 1987 Canada Cup. For all the reasons described above.
*1991 WJC final game between Canada and the USSR: The last epic Canada/USSR battle. Slaney's goal with five minutes to play clinched the gold and made me a WJC fan for life.
*1995 WJC - Canada vs. Czechs: Firewagon hockey at its finest. Considered by many to be the most exciting game in tourney history.
*1996 World Cup semi-final - Canada vs. Sweden. The long-lost Canadian classic. A palpitating double overtime thriller, with the winning goal coming in the final minute.
*2002 Olympic gold medal game - Canada vs. the U.S. One of my favourite moments in hockey history is the Canadian fans singing the national anthem in the final minute. 50 years of frustration ends.
*2006 World Junior gold medal game - Canada vs. Russia. I love the WJC. And I can honestly say that this Canadian team is my favourite of them all. Nowhere near as skilled as the 2005 edition, but I don't know if I've ever seen a team, at any level, with that kind of team concept.

Exhibition:
*1975 USSR vs. Montreal. This wasn't just an exhibition game. To watch those players, you could tell this meant as much to them as any championship. Those who question Tretiak's greatness need only watch him stop everything the Habs threw at him. More than 30 years later, it is still, in the eyes of many, the greatest game ever played.

 

[God Bless Canada]

As a longtime NYI fan, it's easy to point to Nystrom's Cup winner in Game Six of the '80 Finals. But a contest that I will always remember fondly from that dynasty period is Game One of the '83 Finals vs. Edmonton.

This was supposed to be the Oilers year, the season in which they overtook NYI. Isles sleep-walked through the regular season, finishing second in their division. Edmonton, meanwhile, simply steamrolled through the regular season and playoffs, displaying offense like no team ever before.

Game one in Edmonton, Bossy is a scratch due to a severe cold, IIRC. From start to finish, Oilers, led by #99, Messier, Kurrri and Anderson, BARRAGE Isles, who play a bend but do not break game to PERFECTION for 60 minutes. (Messier tries to set the tone physical, with an early high speed, mid-ice cross check to the face of Isles dman Tomas Jonnson.) Somehow, the Isles find a way to get a Duane Sutter goal in transition and sit on that lead until a Ken Morrow empty netter, for a 2-0 win. Quite possibly the single best display of goaltending I've ever seen, by Billy Smith.

Set the tone for the rest of the short series, which NYI swept. It was the Isles last Cup (prior to Edmonton wrestling the Cup away the next season), and it was a masterful display of a dynasty champion in its last stages, simply finding a way to win. Needless to say, the Oilers learned a lot from that series loss as well.

***

As far as other NHL games go, NYR/NJD, Game Seven in the '94 Conference Finals is also memorable.

IMO, one of the most unforgetable stories in hockey history came after that 1983 Cup final. Gretzky and Lowe were walking past the Islanders locker room after the loss in Game 4. They peered in and expected to see a celebration. The Islanders were happy that they'd won, but they were a very beaten up team. The Oilers thought they'd been through battles to reach the final, but when Gretzky and Lowe saw those Islander players, they they hadn't. They also realized exactly what it would take to win a Cup. The next year, the Cup was theirs.

 

[Know Your Enemy]

IMO, one of the most unforgetable stories in hockey history came after that 1983 Cup final. Gretzky and Lowe were walking past the Islanders locker room after the loss in Game 4. They peered in and expected to see a celebration. The Islanders were happy that they'd won, but they were a very beaten up team. The Oilers thought they'd been through battles to reach the final, but when Gretzky and Lowe saw those Islander players, they they hadn't. They also realized exactly what it would take to win a Cup. The next year, the Cup was theirs.

That's why only stanley cup champions should be allowed to touch the cup, as they are the only ones to know what it truly takes to win the cup and are therefore the only ones who deserve to touch it.

When I watched the classic Oilers cup wining games on CBC a little while back and saw all those Oilers fans during the post game celebrations run onto the ice to try to cop a feel on the cup I was not happy. I actually started yelling screeming at my TV because the act of buffonery displayed by those fans.... those clowns DONT DESERVE to touch the cup!!
I honestly wouldn't touch the cup if somone tried to pay me.

 

[DTownWingsfan]

March 26,1997
Avalanche - Red Wings
Lemieux earns his nickname Turtle


April 1,1998
Avalanche - Red Wings
Ozzie and Roy brawling at Center Ice

 

[Ogopogo*]

I am such a dumbass to not mention this game:

Game 7, 1991 Calgary @ Edmonton

Esa Tikkanen singlehandedly won the game and series for the Oil. No Coffey, no Gretzky but, quite possibly the greatest game in Oilers history. (Well, one of them anyway)

 

[Marcus-74]

Exhibition:
*1975 USSR vs. Montreal. This wasn't just an exhibition game. To watch those players, you could tell this meant as much to them as any championship. Those who question Tretiak's greatness need only watch him stop everything the Habs threw at him. More than 30 years later, it is still, in the eyes of many, the greatest game ever played.

And maybe you need to watch the Czechoslovakians whip 8 goals behind Tretiak in the ´77 Izvestia tournament... and it certainly wasn´t the only time when the Soviets lost badly with Tretiak in goal.

He was great when he was great, but he also really sucked when he sucked. I only wish that people would stop using one (or two or tree etc.) game(s) as an example of someone´s greatness.

 

[David Puddy]

NHL

April 3, 1988, Devils-Blackhawks. On the last night of the regular season, the New Jersey Devils defeat the Blackhawks 4-3 in overtime when John MacLean beat Darren Pang. The Devils jumped past the New York Rangers, who had won earlier, to clinch the last playoff spot in the Patrick Division. In the team's first season under President and General Manager Lou Lamoriello, the New Jersey Devils qualified for the playoffs for the first time.

This game ushered in a new era in New Jersey. The team would go on to lose in seven games to the Boston Bruins in the Wales Conference Finals, but they brought an end to the "Mickey Mouse team" era.

Honorable mentions: June 10, 2000: Devils-Stars, Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Elias to Arnott in fifth period gives the Devils a four games to two playoff victory over Dallas. The Devils capture their second Stanley Cup Championship as Scott Stevens wins the Conn Smythe Trophy.

February 3, 1985, Devils-Islanders. As a maturing Joe Piscopo leaves Saturday Night Live to conquer Hollywood, I go to my first hockey game. The upstart New Jersey Devils defeat the defending Wales Conference Champion New York Islanders 3-2 at Brendan Byrne Arena in the Meadowlands behind goalie Chico Resch.


International

February 22, 1980, USA-USSR. The U.S. college players beat the best team in the world 4-3 behind Mark Johnson's two goals and captain Mike Eruzione's goal at the 10:00 mark of the 3rd Period.

Honorable mention: September 14, 1996, USA-Canada, World Cup of Hockey. Team USA, managed by Lou Lamoriello, defeats Team Canada 5-2 in Montreal, Canada to capture the first World Cup of Hockey gold medal.

 

[David Puddy]

And maybe you need to watch the Czechoslovakians whip 8 goals behind Tretiak in the ´77 Izvestia tournament... and it certainly wasn´t the only time when the Soviets lost badly with Tretiak in goal.

How many goals did Patrick Roy give up in his final game as a Canadien? I think every one of the great goalies have been shelled at some time or another.

 

[GuloGulo]

An odd fave from Swedish hockey is the advancement deciding game from 1994 between provincial team Boden (with Thomas Holmstrom as the leading star) and Sweden's own Islanders, AIK (Stockholm team).

You had to hear the game over the radio, or see it. The goal cage was moved in the last minute by an AIK defender, a delay of game was called on the defender, but then the ref changes his mind (correctly) and awards a penalty shot to Boden.
Sthlm Globe Arena and some 12000 spectators go absolutely bonkers. That HAS to be the wildest minutes in swedish hockey ever.

Ulf Sandstrom (who hadn't missed a penalty shot during the entire season) has a chance to score the series winning goal... but goalie legend Ridderwall saves the day. AIK returns to SEL, Boden never copmes back as a significant club.

Sadly enough both teams have gone bankrupt since.


And another goldie from recent SEL hockey was Indians vs Leksand, where Leksand takes a seemingly unlosable 0-4 lead, Jens Nielsen manages to miss an EN goal from about 2 yards distance, then the Indians score 4 in the final 5 minutes and wins the game on penalty shots (the tying goal in the last second of play). Incredible, just incredible.

 

[Tricolore#20]

Game 1 of the 1992 SCF finals. Pens Vs Blackhawks. A game the Pens got outplayed in from beginning to end and were down at one point 4-1, but the Hawks didn't have Mario Lemieux and that's all that mattered...

This goal from that game is one of my first Pens memories(I was 9 at the time)....and won the cup for the Pens that second time and set the tone for the series.

Take a look...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=P9STr-jICqQ

Game 4 of that series was the most exciting hockey game I ever witnessed in my life. It had everything in it, and was made more interesting with the arrival of Dominik Hasek. Hasek was absolutely outstanding, and heroic in defeat. Dirk Graham's hat-trick brought out the absolute best of Chicago Stadium, and of course, Lemieux and Jagr's dominance brought the Pens the Cup. It's a game that I have on tape, fortunately, and one that I will never forget.

As was mentioned in this thread, Game 2 of the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals was hugely memorable for Desjardins hattrick. Games 3 and 4 will also be stuck in my mind, because of John LeClair's tenacity in scoring 2 straight OT game winners in the Stanley Cup Finals. Both goals were kind of similar, but they both showed how hard Leclair was working to win the Cup.

The greatest goaltender display I ever witnessed was a game between the Edmonton Oilers and the Detroit Red Wings in the 1996/97 season. Curtis Joseph made 52 saves in the shutout, and some of them were absolute robbery. I wish I could see a tape of that game somewhere, because it was absolutely incredible what Cujo did that night.