After an extremely entertaining Leafs win the night before, it looked like Toronto's hopes for the postseason were deader than disco with four a half minutes left in today's decisive NJ/NYI game. The Isles, who with a win would replace the Leafs as the final entrants to the Eastern Conference playoffs, were up comfortably 2-0, when the (up-to-that-point, lacklustre) Devils got a beautiful tip-in goal to cut the lead in half with just over 4:00 left.
Even that didn't look to be enough, however. With the score still 2-1, the final seconds ticking off, and the Devils' goalie out and an extra skater on, it looked dire. The Islanders even had a clearing chance with less than 20 seconds left that would've salted the victory. But when they couldn't get the puck out past centre, the Devils continued to press. Crazily, unbelievably, New Jersey's John Madden managed to jam the puck past the rookie Islander netminder and over the line with less than a second left!! All around the Toronto area, seismographs were reading the effect of thousands of fans, jumping up and down, and doing high fives!
I had been in the act of writing the Leafs' eulogy as the goal went in, and had to scrap that and start all over... Those final five minutes will be remembered by Leafs fans for a long time to come, especially if the Isles don't pull it out in Overtime or the shootout.
Overtime just ended, and the 8th spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs will be decided by a shootout! If you wrote this up as a script, no one would buy it!
And... the Islanders just won the shootout 2-1, breaking Leafs' fans hearts everywhere...I'm sure the Canadian sports writers are already licking their lips in anticipation of ripping the system that allowed a playoff spot to be decided by a shootout...
Boneman should be happy, though (no Habs, no Leafs, in the postseason).
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1 comment:
no comment - although it really would have just made for four miserable games if the Leafs did make the postseason anyhoo..
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