20 Apr '04 - + 76 - 44 Around the world in two minutes
Two and a half minutes of game time. That's all it took to show the
world everything you need to know about hockey. Hope, anxiety,
desperation, anger, fear, elation, and finally despair, all condensed
into an amount of time no longer than a commercial break.
Go ahead, tell me hockey is not the greatest sport on earth. I won't
listen, not while I'm still basking in the afterglow of last night's
game.
Game seven. Calgary Flames at Vancouver Canucks. Calgary, leading the
game 2-1, is on the verge of eliminating the Canucks. They only need to
last two more minutes. Then, Andrew Ference takes a slashing penalty
and the Canucks go on the power play with 1:48 left in the game. It
takes some time to get control of the puck and pull the goaltender, but
with a minute left the Canucks are furiously pushing for the tying
goal.
You can feel the crowd begin to hope as their team pounds away around
the goal. Anxiety mounts as time starts ticking away; desperation sets
in as shots are turned away without result.
And then a whistle blows. Ed Jovanovski is called for high sticking in
front of the net, ending the Vancouver power play with a mere 27
seconds left on the clock. The referees start hearing it from the fans,
who have watched them let multiple infractions go without blinking.
Anger turns to fear as the time again begins to tick away and Calgary's
Jarome Iginla moves the puck down the ice to take a backhanded shot at
the empty net. It misses wide, and Vancouver begins their last
desparate rush. Naslund carries the puck into Flames territory and
pulls it wide around a defenseman to make a shot on goal. Kiprusoff
makes the save - but Matt Cooke is there for the rebound, and with less
than six seconds left in the game, the Canucks have tied it at 2-2.
The crowd goes insane. They're not the only ones. In the penalty box,
unable to join his teammates to celebrate, Jovanovski is doing his best
impression of a crazed fan, jumping, screaming, and pounding on the
glass.
After intermission, overtime begins. Twelve seconds in, the Flames get
Ference back and start their own power play. Just over a minute later,
they score and it's over. The fans, elated only moments before, slump
into their seats and watch in disbelief as the Flames shake hands with
the home team and leave the arena to go prepare for their next round.
Only seconds before, the arena was so loud you couldn't scream a
comment to the guy in the seat next to you; now it's a morgue - albeit
a morgue attended by a few garishly-clad Flames fans.
If you watched that game and didn't enjoy it, don't bother with hockey. It's not for you.