Penguins-Sabres Game 7 Road Trip

In May 2001, I was approaching the end of my graduate program at The Ohio State University in Columbus. I also worked three jobs and was trying to find a full-time job and figure out where I would live after graduation. Despite probably being stressed, particularly in finishing my case study requirement to be able to graduate, I watched nearly every Pittsburgh Penguins playoff game at my friends' apartment, generally with my friends Maze, Wells, and Rob. Oh, I should also mention that my friends' apartment featured a living room table with bottle caps glued on the entire surface. This really has nothing to do with the story, but the table was super cool for guys in their 20s and not something that would probably work in homes with families. 

20 years ago this past Saturday (May 8th), the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 in overtime in game six of the Eastern Conference semifinals. During the postgame broadcast on either ESPN or ESPN2, the studio host casually mentioned that there were still some tickets available for game 7 to be held two nights later in Buffalo. We looked at each other and quickly tried to figure out the logistics of taking off work/school and driving the 300+ miles to Buffalo. While we were doing this, we found the phone number for the Buffalo Sabres ticket office and called to purchase tickets. There was not a way to buy tickets online back then. We managed to get 4 tickets in the top row of the HSBC Arena.

(I should mention that I showed this post to my friends before publishing it. According to Rob, the studio hosts mentioned that there were still tickets available for game 7 prior to overtime beginning in game 6. He also said that we pledged to try to buy tickets for game 7 if the Penguins won game 6. He's probably right.)

On Thursday, May 10th, 2001, we left Columbus around lunchtime and drove to Buffalo. It was a fairly uneventful ride except that Rob attempted to hang a Pittsburgh Penguins towel from the backseat window. This ended poorly as his pinky finger got smashed in what was clearly non-child friendly windows. While I don't believe there was any long-term damage, his finger really hurt during the trip. Oh, and there wasn't time to go to the doctor or even stop and get ice. We had to get to Buffalo in time for the game! (It's possible that we stopped at a fast food drive through to get a cup of ice. If we did, it probably didn't take more than 2 minutes from the trip.)

What's funny is that I remember very little about the game except for Darius Kasparaitis scoring the game-winning goal in overtime against future Hall-of-Famer Dominik Hasek and then diving on the ice in celebration. 

There were a decent amount of Penguins fans in attendance (at most 10% of the crowd), but much less than a Pens-Caps game in DC or any away Steelers game. While the Sabres fans were disappointed in the result, I don't remember getting any abuse or people yelling at us while wearing Penguins gear. 

After the game, we made our way to the lower section of the arena behind where ESPN interviewed Kasparaitis. I know that this made Sportscenter (a friend of mine saw me in the background and emailed me the next morning asking if I lived in Buffalo), but unfortunately, I can't find any video of this. There's audio proof of the interview though.

There's also complete footage of the entire game and interviews conduced by Pittsburgh and national media. I went through this video starting around the 3:25:00 mark like it was the Zapruder film, but I couldn't find myself. 

(Sean's note: The video I posted here in 2021 is gone. I can't find any videos now of the post-game celebration and interviews.)

The Penguins finished the season with a rookie goalie named Johan Hedberg. He went 7-1-1 to help lead the Penguins into the playoffs and continued his hot streak in a first round series win against the Washington Capitals. Hedberg got the nickname "Moose" and was extremely popular in Pittsburgh. You would hear "MOOOOOOOOOSE" chants when he made a big save, and there were even foam antlers to represent Hedberg. I mention this because Maze had a pair of these antlers that he wore to the game. On the way out of the arena, a Penguins fan approached Maze to buy the antlers, and purchased them for $20. While Hedberg played 12 seasons in the NHL, he never did as well as he did during the 2001 playoff run. I think getting $20 for the antlers was a good deal!

After we left the arena, we threw a frisbee to each other in the parking lot waiting for the traffic to clear. Then, several hours later probably between 2:00-4:00 AM, we stopped at a 24-hour Denny's somewhere off I-71 in Ohio. The food went right through us and Wells drove as quickly as possible to get us back to Columbus.

20 years later, I'm happy we went to the game. I wouldn't necessarily call it a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, but this was a fun, impulsive decision that I'll always cherish. I certainly remember it more than what I would have done at one of my jobs that day. It's fun to tell people that I was at the Kasparaitis game and that we drove from Columbus to Buffalo, saw the game, and drove right back in less than 18 hours. I'm sure that my friends feel the say way.

Photos by Associated Press and Doug Pensinger/ALLSPORT

Pittsburgh Sports Memories

As part of Mondesi's House Readers Rule Week, I was invited to answer the Pittsburgh-centric questions listed below. I think that this will be posted on the site sometime Tuesday (update: it has been posted; click on the link above), but I wanted to share my responses here anyway.

1. What is your all-time most memorable moment in Pittsburgh sports history?

On Tuesday, May 8, 2001, I was living in Columbus, Ohio and watched game six of the Eastern conference semi-finals between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres with some friends. After the Penguins won in overtime, the ESPN announcers innocently stated that there were still tickets available for game seven. My friends and I looked at each other, decided to call the Sabres’ ticket office and managed to buy tickets in the last row of the arena. We all left work around noon on Thursday, drove the 325 or so miles to Buffalo and watched live as the Penguins defeated the Sabres in overtime when Darius Kasparaitis beat Dominik Hasek and dove on the ice in celebration. After jumping around and making our way down to the lower section (where I happened to be in the background of ESPN’s interview with Kasparaitis), we drove back to Columbus, had a horrible 4:00 am breakfast at Denny’s and made it to work on Friday.



1A. What is your all-time most forgettable moment in Pittsburgh sports history?

Everyone is going to write about the Francisco Cabrera, Sid Bream and the 1992 National League Championship Series. I still remember staring at the television in disbelief and watching Deion Sanders chase Tim McCarver around the locker room. While this is definitely #1 on my list, I’ll share my #1B least memorable moment in Pittsburgh sports history: the 1994 AFC Championship game between the Steelers and San Diego Chargers. The Steelers were huge favorites, and as we later learned, had plans to create their own "Super Bowl Shuffle" style video. However, Stan Humphries, Tony Martin and Alfred Pupunu ruined it. Trailing 17-13, the Steelers had one final chance on fourth and goal, but the Neil O’Donnell pass was batted away. I never heard Three Rivers Stadium and 55,000 people so quiet. It was silent walking out of the stadium.



2. What makes the city of Pittsburgh special to you?

The pride that people have in the city and its citizens. Maybe it’s just me (though I don’t think so), but we love to tell people about famous Pittsburghers such as Mr. Rogers, Andy Warhol and August Wilson. We love our teams and players from Western Pennsylvania like Jason Taylor, Curtis Martin and all of the legendary quarterbacks (Marino, Unitas , Montana , Kelly, Namath, etc.). I get so excited when I see positive things written about the city as was the case earlier this year when the New York Times and USA Today each published stories about traveling to Pittsburgh . Conversely, we get defensive when an outsider speaks ill of the city as a Seattle writer did prior to the Steelers-Seahawks Super Bowl. Again, I don’t think I’m alone on this. We even have pride in our food and restaurants like Primanti’s, The O and Eat ‘n Park! Maybe other places have this, but I haven’t seen it.



3. What would you consider your all-time favorite Pittsburgh sports team, specific to a single season? (For example, the '90-91 Penguins or the 1979 Pirates)

The 1990-91 Pittsburgh Penguins. I was too young to remember the Steelers’ Super Bowl championships so this was my first opportunity to celebrate any type of Pittsburgh sports title. I have several specific memories during the season. John Cullen was probably my favorite player on the team, and I remember being upset that he got traded to Hartford . Since the Penguins received Ron Francis, Grant Jennings and Ulf Samuelsson in return, I guess things turned out pretty well, but at the time, I knew very little about these guys. I just didn’t understand why the Penguins traded one of their best players. I also remember being at Kennywood during game one of the Stanley Cup Finals (it was our school district’s Kennywood Day) going around the park trying to listen to the game. Finally, and probably the reason why this team is my all-time favorite, the Penguins were all that we talked about during high school after each playoff game. I guess we had tests and homework but there seemed to be nothing else going on in our lives besides the Pens.

Feel free to provide your own answers to these questions in the comments or, if applicable, your own blog, and I'll be happy to link to your post.