Flyers Work Overtime(s) to Beat Penguins

They started in early evening and didn’t stop until early morning. They lost track of time, the number of overtimes, even which end of the rink was theirs.

The Philadelphia Flyers ran out of dry uniforms. The Pittsburgh Penguins nearly ran out of defensemen.

As the overtimes ticked by--one, three, and, finally, five--they became more exhausted, more apprehensive, more cautious. No one wanted to commit the mistake that cost his team the third-longest game in NHL history.

“It wasn’t pretty hockey,” Penguin goaltender Ron Tugnutt said. “All the players were exhausted. It is a tough way to play. You’re fighting yourself to stay in the game.”

So, perhaps fittingly, the NHL’s longest game in 64 years was mercifully ended by a player recently demoted because he couldn’t score big goals.

Keith Primeau, dropped from the top line two games ago because of his lack of production, whizzed a hard wrist shot past Tugnutt at 12:01 of the fifth overtime early Friday morning local time in Pittsburgh to give the Flyers a 2-1 victory over the Penguins.

The Flyers barely had the energy to celebrate after requiring 92 minutes, 1 second of overtime and the equivalent of 2 1/2 games to earn a 2-2 series tie in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Game 5 is Sunday in Philadelphia.

The only longer games in NHL history were in the 1930s. Detroit defeated the Montreal Maroons, 1-0, in an overtime that lasted 116 minutes 30 seconds on March 24, 1936, and Toronto defeated Boston, 1-0, in an overtime that lasted 104 minutes 36 seconds on April 3, 1933.

“We’re going down in hockey history,” said Primeau, who had only seven goals in 78 previous playoff games.

Surprisingly, about a third of the 17,148 fans stayed around until the finish at 2:35 a.m., seven hours after the start.

The Flyers’ first goal, by John LeClair on a deflection of Eric Desjardins’ shot early in the third period, came by accident. The Penguins argued LeClair’s stick was above the crossbar, but the video replay was inconclusive.

Remarkably, the Penguins scored on their first shot, by Alexei Kovalev at 2:22 of the first period, then didn’t score again.