Two years...Feels like a decade

On this date two years ago, Pens fans from all over braced themselves throughout the day to prepare for 3 hours of hockey that may have defined lives. Waking up on the morning of a Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals is much different than waking up on any ordinary day. We have been through nearly two months of hockey played at it most intense pace and one game was set to determine whether the season would be etched in silver at the end of the night. We all know what happened, but the Pens won't win a cup every year. Two years ago on this night, we were all celebrating a Stanley Cup. Here are The Pond's favorite moments of the run.

Up first for the Pens were their hated rivals from the other side of the state, the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers were seeking revenge as the Pens sent them packing in five games in the 2007-08 Eastern Conference Finals. The first great moment of the series that many remember was Bill Guerin's goal in the second overtime to put the pens up 2-0:

But the toe save on Jeff Carter by Marc-Andre Fleury late in the 3rd kept the Pens in the game.

Evgeni Malkin tied the game on a power play.

The Pens would lose game four, and Fleury would come up huge in game four to give the Pens a 3-1 series lead coming back to Pittsburgh. But the Pens couldn't close the series out on home ice, as the Flyers posted a 3-0 shut out and forced game six. The walls seemed to be collapsing in on Pens fans as the Flyers would take a 3-0 lead. But Max Talbot may have provided the defining moment of the series after he and Daniel Carcillo obliged each other and dropped the gloves.



The fight seemed to provide momentum for a Penguin team that looked down and out. Ruslan Fedotenko would score 14 seconds after, Eaton would get one nearly two minutes latter, then Sidney Crosby would tie the game at 16:59 of the second period. Gonchar netted the game winner a little over two minutes into the 3rd and Crosby would send home an empty netter to put the nail in the Flyers' coffin. Highlights below. 

After the Flyers series, we were waiting to see who would be our opponent in the second round, and in the back the minds of Pens fans, we wanted to take on Ovechkin and the Capitals. Well we got our wish, and what followed may have been one of the best series in NHL history.

Of course, it looked bleak from the start, as the Pens dropped the first two games on the road, which included a pair of game two hat tricks by Crosby and Ovechkin. It only got worse as the Pens were trailing by a goal late into the 3rd period until Kris Letang would tie it up, and the Pens would win in overtime on a goal by Malkin. The pens would win games 4 and 5 on back-to-back nights in different cities to take a 3-2 lead. However, the series would become even more epic as the Capitals would force a game 7. Early in the game, Ovechkin was in on a breakaway and MAF had this to say:



Then after all the hate built up after the past two rounds, we had the Carolina Hurricanes to face in the conference finals. It wasn't even a series and there was really never any hate against the Canes, until some joke sounded some kind of alarm.



Note to self: Whenever Bill Cowher sides with a team in a conference championship game, bet the farm on the other team to win.

Malkin took over the world in this series and provided us with this gem for his 3rd of the game.



Then in the Stanley Cup Finals we faced the same team that ended our Cup hopes the year before. New year, same story. Pens found themselves in a 2-0 hole heading back to Pittsburgh. They won game three on a Sergei Gonchar power play goal.  Then in game four Jordan Staal's shorthanded goal may have changed the series.



Then Crosby


Then Tyler Kennedy on a tic-tac-toe play.



The Pens had life. Until game 5, which we will not talk about.

Then in game 6, we had the Rob Scuderi or as we became to known him as--"The Piece" making "The Save."


Game 7 Highlights.