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Most shocking and improbable finishes to a game

Re: Most shocking and improbable finishes to a game

Minnesota, short handed with 10 seconds left in the 3rd period, versus North Dakota in the 2014 Frozen Four. Face off in the Minnesota end. Minnesota wins the game on a goal with 0.6 on the clock.

Admittedly, just one goal, so it doesn't compare to the great comebacks listed here, but as far as immediately unexpected? Definitely unexpected.
 
riverchief1 said:
I still recall that NU game in 2013 when Lowell was down 4-1 early in the third and Patronick was so disgusted, he left the game. And then Lowell clawed back, tying it up with less than a minute left and then winning it in OT on a Christian Folin blast.
Click to expand...

Want to give me a hand and pull the knife from my back?
 
Re: Most shocking and improbable finishes to a game

Pick a game at random from the 2009 national tournament and it probably finds its place on this list. Although I know I'm not the only one who has tried to erase that tournament from memory.
 
Re: Most shocking and improbable finishes to a game

The Gophers had an improbable and thrilling comeback 4-3 overtime win over Penn State just this past month. They were behind by two and getting badly outplayed and outshot until climbing back in the third period, scoring the tying goal at 2-2 with 2:11 to go. Then, just 45 seconds later, they pull down Penn State's Denis Smirnov from behind, who promptly converts the penalty shot on a beautiful move to make it 3-2. As the final seconds tick away a Nittany Lions victory seemed certain, but with its goaltender pulled Minnesota's Justin Kloos scores with just 4 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime. Rem Pitlick then proceeds to score the winner - which was the Gopher's first and only lead of the night - with just 1:33 left in the OT, and the Gophers escape Happy Valley with an important sweep in the battle for first place in the B1G.
 
Re: Most shocking and improbable finishes to a game

A lot of Badger History is being recalled this week with a Memorial for Coach Jeff Sauer on Thursday and the 40th anniversary of one of the great teams in college hockey history, the 1977 NCAA Champs celebrating their 40th anniversary this weekend. In that light I was thinking about a couple of improbable games from the early days of Badger Hockey.

In Badger Bob Johnson's 7th year as coach he had quickly built the program from just about nothing (WI restarted Varsity Men's Hockey in 1963) into national prominence and had them in their third national semifinal in four years. But they had yet to break through to win one and in the 1973 semi vs. Cornell it looked certain to be another year of close, but no cigar:


Cornell jumped out to a 4-0 lead midway through the second period. The Badgers narrowed it to 4-2 on goals by Norm Cherrey and Dennis Olmstead, but Cornell scored their fifth goal only 40 seconds into the final period.

Then started the Wisconsin comeback. Junior Gary Winchester scored midway through the period to narrow Cornell’s lead to two goals and with 3:11 to go senior Jim Johnston scored to bring Wisconsin within one goal. With 43 seconds left in the game Badger coach Bob Johnson pulled goaltender Dick Perkins to put a sixth skater on the ice. With the Wisconsin net wide open, freshman center Dennis Olmstead continually won important face-offs as the Badgers controlled the puck. Cornell never even got a shot on the Wisconsin open net and coach Johnson said afterwards, “We never lost our poise.”

Even with the seconds ticking down to zero, Olmstead passed in front of the Cornell net to sophomore Dean Talafous who poked it in and the game was tied 5-5. The unbelievable comeback continued into overtime, and at one point Cornell had a two-man breakaway, but Perkins made the save. With 33 seconds left in the overtime period, Olmstead centered the puck to freshman Steve Alley, Alley’s shot was blocked, but the rebound came to Talafous and this time he scored the winner.
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The Badgers would come from behind again vs. #1 ranked WCHA Champion, Denver, in the final to win the first National Championship for Badger Bob and the University of Wisconsin.

Following a 1976 season that saw Badger Bob away coaching Team USA, and a program low, 12 win season, the 1977 team came back with a vengeance. Sporting 4 All-Americans; Goalie Julian Baretta, Craig Norwich, Mike Eaves, and Mark Johnson (Johnson would be low man among the latter 3 with 80 points on the season, his lowest total in his 3 year career as a Badger) plus All-WCHA D John Taft and MJ's fellow Miracle teammate and legendary Madisonian, Bobby Suter, the Badgers were loaded for bear. (or Gopher) After winning the regular season WCHA title, closing down the stretch at 20-1-1 and blowing through the WCHA tournament with a nearly 4 goal per game margin of victory, it was a forgone conclusion that the Badgers were the class of college hockey in '77.

But apparently UNH and coach Charlie Holt didn't get the memo. They 'Cats scratched and clawed their way to a 3-3 tie taking the vaunted Badgers to overtime in the National Semifinal. It took one of the most improbable plays in Frozen Four history to finally end it.
Late in the overtime period with a faceoff to the left of the UNH goal, the Badger's Mike Eaves settled in to take another draw. The puck dropped, Eaves chopped it forward and watched as it sailed straight into the back of the Wildcat net, breaking the hearts of UNH fans and sending the Badgers back to the final.

Perhaps ironically the final was almost the reverse of the '73 game. The Badgers jumped out to a big lead, only to see Michigan score 3 straight to tie it at 5 after three. But just 23 seconds in to overtime, freshman in '73, now senior, Steve Alley turned the tables on the comeback and scored the game winner, giving Badger Bob and UW their 2nd title.

Incidentally they apparently learned some lessons with these heart attack finishes because when the Badgers snuck in the back door in '81, they crushed NMU 5-1 and decimated the Gophers 6-3 in games that were never in doubt for Bob Johnson's third National Championship.
 
Re: Most shocking and improbable finishes to a game

http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0607/boxes/mbmjnia1.n18

November 18, 2006, Niagara at Bemidji State. The Beavers trail 3-1 late in the third. BSU scores an extra attacker power play goal at 19:24 to make it 3-2. With six seconds, left, the faceoff is in the Beaver defensive zone. BSU wins the faceoff and lifts the puck out of the zone without hitting the low rafters in the John Glas Fieldhouse. Rob Sirianni races up the ice, gets behind the D as the puck falls onto his stick at the offensive blue line. He fires a shot past Niagara goalie Juliano Pagliero to tie the game at 3-3 with virtually no time left on the clock (box score says 19:59.9). The officials review and determine it to be a good goal. Game goes into overtime and ends up tied. Niagara head coach Dave Burkholder goes ballistic on the officials during the team handshakes.
 
Re: Most shocking and improbable finishes to a game

Just this past weekend, Princeton was up against elimination, having lost Game 1 of their series with Colgate and trailing 3-2 late in the third period of Game 2. They scored with ONE second on the clock to the tie the game, then won it in overtime to prolong elimination and won Game 3 to advance to the quarterfinals. That might not match some of the above posts but it's worth mentioning for sure.
 
Re: Most shocking and improbable finishes to a game

WeAreNDHockey said:
For me one game always comes to mind. Notre Dame versus Western Michigan at Lawson Ice Arena in Kalamazoo, January 28th, 1983. It was the first night of a Friday/Saturday home-and-home series.

The previous day news had broken that Notre Dame was leaving the CCHA and dropping hockey to a club sport. It was a devastating culmination of years of uncertainty for the program.

Dating back to a recruiting moratorium to comply with federal requirements to the Title IX amendment to the Higher Education Act of 1965, support for hockey on the campus had dwindled from the earlier days of the program, in large part to the inability to consistently compete when good players did not know with certainty that hockey was a priority. Indiana's own Senator, Birch Bayh co-authored the legislation that ensured there would be no discrimination based on gender for any institution of higher education that received even a dollar of federal aid. Notre Dame -- along with most other NCAA schools -- was not in compliance and as we know even today, the easiest way to comply is to drop a sport. In large part Notre Dame's move to the CCHA from the WCHA for the 1981-82 season was also in part driven by the need to balance the expenses of men's and women's sports, as the travel in the CCHA would be significantly less expensive.

Fast forward to 1983. After rumors and and unknowns that continued for weeks, the axe finally fell during the week of the WMU game. A somber team made the 60 minute bus ride north to Kalamazoo, and tagging along was yours truly and a small but vocal group of fans and families who traveled to many road contests.

For 56 minutes the game did not go well for the Irish. They fell behind 3-0 and trailed at various times by scores of 4-1, 5-2 and late in the third 7-4. At the 15:06 mark of the third period, Notre dame, still trailing 7-4, found themselves short-handed as freshman Mark Benning was headed for the penalty box. But with just 3:49 left in the game, Rex Bellomy scored a short-handed goal to make the score 7-5. John Deasey scored with just 2:23 left to make it a one goal game. And then with just over a minute remaining, Kirt Bjork -- father to Notre Dame's leading scorer this season Anders Bjork -- scored on a blistering slapshot just inside the blueline on an odd-man break tying the game at 7. The goal was Bjork's 3rd of the game -- to go along with 2 assists -- and was his 3rd hattrick of his All-American season. Heading into the OT tied at 7, it seemed almost a foregone conclusion Notre Dame would win the game. In those days a full intermission and a 10-minute OT were in the NCAA rulebook. Once the puck was dropped it did not take long for the comeback to be complete. Deasey scored his second goal of the night and Notre Dame won 8-7.

Deasey went on to play two seasons at Providence, helping the Friars to their first ever title game, falling short in the final and losing to RPI. The Western Michigan goalie was long time NHLer Glenn Healy. Gene Corrigan, Notre Dame's athletic director at the time, said the decision to drop hockey was the saddest day of his professional career. In an ironic post script, which many of us close to the program and those who worked in it considered insulting, when Father Edmond P. Joyce, Executive Vice President of Notre Dame and the chairman of the Faculty Board in Control of Athletics retired, the building that housed the hockey team was re-named in his honor. It burned many of us because Father Joyce almost single-handedly was the administration figure behind dropping hockey.

Notre Dame has won a couple of big games since then, but for me that game remains perhaps my most vivid memory of the team.
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I didn't know Notre Dame even played hockey prior to like 2008. Go figure.
 
BC/HE said:
Tonight there was a game that ended in the most unimaginable way. Niagara which only won 3 games this season and sitting at the bottom of the PWR by a mile came from behind in a highly unlikely way to beat RIT 5-4. Trailing 4-2 with under 6 minutes to go Niagara was called for a penalty which they were about to kill off but instead scored a shorthanded goal with 8 seconds left with under 4 minutes to go. Then with time winding down and under a minute to go they scored the equalizer with an extra attacker goal. However with 21 seconds left Niagara was called for another penalty and 10 seconds later the improbable happened again. They scored another shorthanded goal with 11 seconds left to win 5-4. All of this when trailing they only had 6 shots total on net in the third period, half of them being those goals in the last 4 minutes. Absolute stunner.
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Maine lost to UNH in almost the exact same fashion about 10 years ago. Maine's dman on the PP shot the puck right into a UNH player's shinpads and he went down and scored. UNH scored another goal to tie it then won in ot.

Shawn's last win actually came courtesy of Michael Schutte scoring with only two seconds left in regulation then in OT MN's goalie misplayed a clear right onto a Maine players stick who just had to slide it into an empty net. I believe Maine's first goal of the game came really late in the first period too.

The '04 national championship game just wasn't Maine's night. The PP Denver scored on was a very soft penalty and Maine had a great chance to clear the puck leading up to the goal and didn't.
 
Re: Most shocking and improbable finishes to a game

OK, I'm going to give away my age with this but in my mind's eye, it would have to be the first round of the 1965 Beanpot. All four teams were strong that year.

The most shocking and improbable finish came in the first game, between Northeastern and BU, where a BU kid named Fred Bassi took a pass, split the defense, and beat NU goalie Gary Thornton to break a 4-4 tie with just 54 seconds left in the 3rd OT. The most shocking and incredible part is not the fading seconds of the 3rd OT but the fact that many swear that Bassi was a couple of steps offside when he took that pass. I didn't have a clear view so I don't know for sure. But in those days, games were officiated by only two referees (no linesmen) and because of the speed of the game, they rarely had a clear view of the determining edge of the blue line. Besides, both of them were beyond gassed.

In the second game BC edged Harvard, also in OT, when some kid named York deflected a shot to break a 1-1 tie.

The T had closed down for the night by the time everything ended so those of us who had no other way home hung around in the train station or across the street at the all-night Hayes-Bickfords cafeteria.
 
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Re: Most shocking and improbable finishes to a game

December 9, 2006. Bemidji State 6 at Minnesota-Duluth 5 in OT. The "Teddy Bear Toss" game.

http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0607/boxes/mbmjmnd1.d09

Minnesota-Duluth was having their Teddy Bear Toss game. UMD scores very early in the first and part of the crowd that had already settled in threw their bears on the ice. UMD scores again to go up 2-0 in the first and some more bears come raining down. The officials skate over to the PA and they announce a warning for a possible Delay of Game penalty. UMD scores again to go up 3-0 and more bears come on the ice. Boom, delay of game penalty on UMD. BSU scores on the ensuing power play. Eventually UMD goes up 5-2, but BSU storms back to take a 6-5 OT victory.
 
Re: Most shocking and improbable finishes to a game

beaverhockeyfan said:
December 9, 2006. Bemidji State 6 at Minnesota-Duluth 5 in OT. The "Teddy Bear Toss" game.

http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0607/boxes/mbmjmnd1.d09

Minnesota-Duluth was having their Teddy Bear Toss game. UMD scores very early in the first and part of the crowd that had already settled in threw their bears on the ice. UMD scores again to go up 2-0 in the first and some more bears come raining down. The officials skate over to the PA and they announce a warning for a possible Delay of Game penalty. UMD scores again to go up 3-0 and more bears come on the ice. Boom, delay of game penalty on UMD. BSU scores on the ensuing power play. Eventually UMD goes up 5-2, but BSU storms back to take a 6-5 OT victory.
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Now that's what I call improbable. LOL!
(are you sure it wasn't Beaver fans throwing those bears?)
 
Re: Most shocking and improbable finishes to a game

Not sure of the year, 2011 or 2013, UNH vs North Dakota in the Regionals in Manchester, NH.........UNH ties the score with 0.7 seconds remaining and then wins in OT in the first minute or 2.......I was sitting with Governor Lynch and his family.....the place went wild! Here is the highlights.......much better than I remember! 2009 was the year....
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...1D9CB471652DA488A78C1D9CB471652DA48&FORM=VIRE
 
Re: Most shocking and improbable finishes to a game

One of the best UNH games to be at.......although in 1974, #1 UNH played #8 RPI in the old ECAC quarterfinals at Snively........UNH fell behind 5-2 and then somehow it became a 3 on 3 game for 2 minutes......Coach Holt put out the Cliff Cox-Jaime Hislop-Gordie Clark line which was leading the country in points.........and then scored 3 goals in a minute something to tie the game! Don Cutts in net eventually was the difference as UNH lost 6-5! Not the best IT guy but hopefully you will enjoy the videos.......some great moments for me!
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...8C575B22BD6AF3A704998C575B22BD6AF&FORM=WRVORC
 
Re: Most shocking and improbable finishes to a game

zoofer said:
One of the best UNH games to be at.......although in 1974, #1 UNH played #8 RPI in the old ECAC quarterfinals at Snively........UNH fell behind 5-2 and then somehow it became a 3 on 3 game for 2 minutes......Coach Holt put out the Cliff Cox-Jaime Hislop-Gordie Clark line which was leading the country in points.........and then scored 3 goals in a minute something to tie the game! Don Cutts in net eventually was the difference as UNH lost 6-5! Not the best IT guy but hopefully you will enjoy the videos.......some great moments for me!
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...8C575B22BD6AF3A704998C575B22BD6AF&FORM=WRVORC
Click to expand...

It is too bad that only part of that game which has apparently been saved is the only 2 minutes of the game when UNH played like the #1 ECAC seed. :) I would love to see Rick Smith's OT goal, his second of the game which was also his second of his career. At the time I heard the game on the radio. I don't think it was televised to Troy.
 
Re: Most shocking and improbable finishes to a game

2012 WCHA Final Five Semifinal - Minnesota vs. North Dakota. Gophers got up 3-0 and UND didn't get one back until scoring in the 2nd period with 5:09 left. UND then went on to score 5 unanswered goals in the 3rd period to win 6-3. It was a great game. Minnesota had a good team that year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq6nLtGYaz4
 
Re: Most shocking and improbable finishes to a game

October 18, 2003.

In Jamie Russell's first home game as head coach of Michigan Tech, the Huskies trailed Northern Michigan 6-3 with under 3 minutes to play. Nick Anderson scored with 2:05 left, and then Colin Murphy got two more with 1:26 and the :28 to play with the extra attacker. Then he completed the natural hat trick in overtime when he scored the winner at the 2:58 mark...which was actually his 4th goal of the game.

http://techhockey.blogspot.com/2007/06/remembering-october-18-2003.html
 
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