Close finishes...
Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 3:10 pm
Hey all,
Just had a bit of a coincidence with my Penguins game, heading towards the 2012/13 playoffs.
I led the division for most of the 2nd half of the year but couldn't shake the Rangers and put the division and a top-3 seeding to bed early. It goes down to the last game of the season and I have a 1-point lead going into game #82 of the regular season, on home ice... against the Rangers!
So, it was a 1-game shootout for the division title. The blueshirts had a 4-3 lead heading into the final period but Sid managed to tie it at 4 to send us into overtime. No goals were scored and so, after 82 games each (6 of which were against each other, don't forget) it all came down to a shootout to decide the division's Champion!
I know that playoff seedings and playoff series can often be settled in final-game overtime or shootouts, I just think that this one was a bit special - the fact that this was a straight fight between the 2 teams still in the running (rather than their results against other teams being the decider), that it was still even after 82 games (rather than 'just' the 7 needed for close playoff wins), that it was for a title rather than just the minor placings/early playoff rounds, and that it went as far as a game can go (i.e. to a shootout in this case) before a victor was determined.
For the record, we won the shootout and the 2nd seed in the East, but has anybody else had anything like this happen to them? Post your stories of things that went right down to the wire here!
Just had a bit of a coincidence with my Penguins game, heading towards the 2012/13 playoffs.
I led the division for most of the 2nd half of the year but couldn't shake the Rangers and put the division and a top-3 seeding to bed early. It goes down to the last game of the season and I have a 1-point lead going into game #82 of the regular season, on home ice... against the Rangers!
So, it was a 1-game shootout for the division title. The blueshirts had a 4-3 lead heading into the final period but Sid managed to tie it at 4 to send us into overtime. No goals were scored and so, after 82 games each (6 of which were against each other, don't forget) it all came down to a shootout to decide the division's Champion!
I know that playoff seedings and playoff series can often be settled in final-game overtime or shootouts, I just think that this one was a bit special - the fact that this was a straight fight between the 2 teams still in the running (rather than their results against other teams being the decider), that it was still even after 82 games (rather than 'just' the 7 needed for close playoff wins), that it was for a title rather than just the minor placings/early playoff rounds, and that it went as far as a game can go (i.e. to a shootout in this case) before a victor was determined.
For the record, we won the shootout and the 2nd seed in the East, but has anybody else had anything like this happen to them? Post your stories of things that went right down to the wire here!