The Penguins Are Done Early

“We’re not going to panic just because we lost a game. The only time to panic is when you lose four games in a series, and I don’t think we’re going to let that happen . “

--goaltender Tom Barrasso after the Pittsburgh Penguins’ playoff-record 14-game winning streak ended last month.

Now the Penguins can panic. It’s over.

There will be no three-peat--despite the celebratory banners that already hang in downtown Pittsburgh--and no hat trick of Stanley Cup championships.

The cup stopped here the last two springs, but the Penguins’ cup run was stopped right here Friday by the New York Islanders 4-3 in overtime in Game 7 of the Patrick Division finals.

The Civic Arena, stuffed to the tip of its shiny silver roof moments before, was so quiet after David Volek’s decisive goal that the on-ice conversation could be heard two stories above in the press box. Fans--some so sure of another Stanley Cup that they already had booked vacation time for early June--left in silent disbelief, or, in many cases, in tears.

Some compared it to the mid-October night seven months before when Francisco Cabrera did to the Pirates in the NL playoffs what Volek did to the Penguins.

“I’m contemplating suicide. I’m sick over this,” said Michele Yant, 34, a season ticket holder of 15 years from suburban Pittsburgh.

They supposedly couldn’t be beaten, but when it came down to a game they absolutely, positively couldn’t lose, the Penguins proved no more adept at dodging defeat than the other NHL division champions, all of whom have exited the playoffs.

The Penguins rallied from a 3-1 deficit with 3 1/2 minutes to play to tie it on goals by Ron Francis and Rick Tocchet, only to lose on Volek’s second goal of the game -- and second playoff point since 1990 -- at 5:16 of overtime.

Now the Penguins know why they call it sudden death overtime.

“A lot of people want to make us out to be supermen, and, obviously, we’re not,” coach Scotty Bowman said.

Still, what made this loss so unexpected, so difficult for the Penguins to explain -- and so impossible to accept -- was they had been so super, so perfect for so long.

“Our knees were shaking before we played them,” the Islanders’ Steve Thomas said. “They just have so many weapons.”

Mario Lemieux’s superhuman-like recovery from Hodgkin’s disease and the Penguins’ subsequent late-season roll to NHL records for consecutive regular-season (17) and playoff (14) victories appeared to stamp them as one of the NHL’s greatest teams ever. So did their remarkable 21-1-1 record from March 5 through May 2.

“They look great, just great,” Rangers general manager Neil Smith said before the playoffs. “They’re cocky and they’re riding a wave. They look as good as they want to be.”

Even in their own minds, they seemed destined to tote Lord Stanley’s cup on yet another victory lap in early June, especially after they watched so many other powers succumb to upsets: Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Quebec, Vancouver.

And maybe that’s what doomed the NHL’s regular-season champions: they forget how razor-thin the margin between victory and defeat can be in the playoffs.

“This wasn’t to come to an end for another year or so,” Barrasso said.

What an untimely end it was.

Few of the Penguins had much to say after the defeat. Lemieux, held without a goal, and many of his teammates declined to talk to reporters, and the few that did talk had little to say.

“We knew that if we left it go to a Game 7, one bad bounce could end it,” Tocchet said. “We never should have let it go to a Game 7.”

“When you’ve won two cups, you don’t want to give it up,” defenseman Larry Murphy said. “This is going to be tough to take. This is going to take a while to get over.”

This current collection of Penguins already may have used up its time together.

The status of Bowman, who reportedly would consider taking a general manager’s job elsewhere, is uncertain. The NHL’s winningest coach ever hasn’t hinted one way or another if he will be back, and neither has general manager Craig Patrick.

Owner Howard Baldwin assembled the highest-priced payroll in the NHL with the express purpose of winning Stanley Cups, and losing out on this cup -- and two additional rounds of playoff games -- will cost him anywhere from $1.6 million to nearly $5 million. If the Penguins had won Game 7, they were assured at least two more home playoff games and as many as eight more.

Now, Baldwin might look to dump a salary here, or trim a contract there.

“We realize anything short of another Stanley Cup is a failure,” Tocchet said before the playoffs. “This team also wants to stay together. This is a great group of guys, but we know they won’t keep us together unless we keep winning cups. The payroll is too high.”

So were the expectations.