The Penguins have competed in 365 playoff games since joining the NHL 51 years ago.
The five most significant are pretty easy to identify: Those would be the victories that clinched their Stanley Cups in 1991, 1992, 2009, 2016 and 2017.
But there have been plenty of other memorable games since the Penguins made their first postseason appearance in 1970.
Some were exhilarating victories. [Do the names of Ron Francis, Petr Nedved or George Ferguson ring a bell?] Others were soul-crushing defeats. [Remember Ed Westfall, Keith Primeau or David Volek?]
While hardly a comprehensive list, here are 20 of the non-Cup-winning games that help to form the tapestry of the team’s playoff legacy, presented in chronological order:
April 26, 1975 – Ed Westfall scored with 5:18 left in regulation to give the New York Islanders a 1-0 victory in Game 7 of Round 2 at the Civic Arena, making New York just the second team in NHL history to win a best-of-seven series after losing the first three games.
April 14, 1979 – George Ferguson hauled in a pass from Gregg Sheppard and burst down the left side before beating Buffalo goalie Bob Sauve from the inner edge of the circle 47 seconds into overtime to give the Penguins a series-clinching 4-3 victory in Game 3 of the opening round at Memorial Auditorium.
April 14, 1981 – The Penguins, seeded 15th in the league, had their bid to upset No. 2 St. Louis scuttled when Blues fourth-liner Mike Crombeen was left unchecked in front of goalie Greg Millen at 5:16 of double-overtime and beat him to give St. Louis a 4-3 victory in a series-deciding Game 5.
April 13, 1982 – The Penguins were on the cusp of an epic upset, holding a two-goal lead on the Islanders with 5½ minutes left in regulation, in a series-settling Game 5 at Nassau Coliseum, but ended up with another devastating loss after John Tonelli forced overtime by beating goalie Michel Dion from inside the right circle with 2:21 to go in the third period, then locked up a 4-3 victory — and the series — with another goal at 6:19 of overtime.
April 25, 1989 – Mario Lemieux produced one of his most breathtaking performances, piling up five goals and three assists in a 10-7 victory against Philadelphia in Game 5 of the Patrick Division final at the Civic Arena. Those eight points tied an NHL postseason record set by New Jersey’s Patrik Sundstrom a year earlier.
April 13, 1991 – The Penguins, relying on an injury-depleted lineup, stayed alive in their first-round series against New Jersey with a 4-3 victory in Game 6 at the Meadowlands. It was a game remembered mostly for The Save, backup goalie Frank Pietrangelo’s stunning glove stop on Devils center Peter Stastny.
May 3, 1991 – Just minutes removed from a 5-4 overtime loss at Boston Garden that gave the Bruins a 2-0 lead in the Wales Conference final, Penguins left winger Kevin Stevens stood in a steamy locker room and guaranteed wave after wave of reporters that his team — which had won little of real consequence to that point in its existence — would win the series.
May 11, 1991 – The Penguins made good on Stevens’ promise by defeating the Bruins, 5-3, in Game 6 of the Wales final, rallying from an early 2-0 deficit. The victory secured their first appearance in a Cup final and, in the process, produced what might have been the highest decibel count of any game ever contested at the Civic Arena.
May 9, 1992 – Down, 2-1, to the New York Rangers in the second round and 3-1 midway through Game 4, the Penguins rallied behind third-period goals by Ron Francis [10:37, from center ice] and Troy Loney [11:52] before Francis completed the comeback — and a hat trick — by scoring at 2:47 of overtime for a 5-4 victory. The Penguins were playing without Lemieux and Joe Mullen, both injured in Game 2 at Madison Square Garden.
May 26, 1992 – After Chicago had built a 4-1 lead with under 25 minutes to go in regulation, the Penguins ran off four unanswered goals to claim a 5-4 victory in Game 1 of the Cup final. Jaromir Jagr pulled them even with a spectacular individual effort, weaving through the Blackhawks before scoring at 15:05 of the third period, and Lemieux got the game-winner by punching in a Larry Murphy rebound at 19:47.
May 14, 1993 – Goals by Francis and Rick Tocchet during the final four minutes of regulation allowed the Penguins to wipe out a 3-1 deficit and force overtime in Game 7 of Round 2 against the Islanders, but New York’s David Volek shattered their hopes of a third consecutive Cup by beating goalie Tom Barrasso at 5:16 of the extra period for a 4-3 victory.
April 24, 1996 – Petr Nedved scored at 19:15 of the fourth overtime to give the Penguins a 3-2 victory at the Capital Centre in Game 4 of their second-round series against Washington. Lemieux had been ejected from the game — the third-longest in NHL history at that time — after a second-period fight with Pat Peake and backup goalie Ken Wregget stopped 53 of the 54 shots he faced, including a Joe Juneau penalty shot, after Barrasso left the game because of muscle cramps.
June 1, 1996 – Tom Fitzgerald, a blue-collar forward with Florida, beat Barrasso with a shot from just inside the Penguins’ blue line at 6:18 of the third period, breaking a 1-1 tie and propelling the underdog Panthers to a 3-1 victory in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final at the Civic Arena.
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May 2, 1999 – Hobbled by a groin injury that forced him to sit out the previous four games and with his team facing elimination – and possible relocation, because of financial problems – Jagr scored with 2:12 left in regulation to tie Game 6 of the opening round against New Jersey, 2-2, then got the game-winner at 8:59 of overtime. The Penguins won the series finale at Continental Airlines Arena two days later.
May 4, 2000 – Philadelphia center Keith Primeau put the Flyers’ 72nd shot of the game past Penguins goalie Ron Tugnutt at 12:01 of the fifth overtime for a 2-1 victory in Game 4 of the second round at Mellon Arena. That remains the third-longest game in NHL playoff history.
May 10, 2001 – Darius Kasparaitis — the same Darius Kasparaitis who had scored three times in 77 games during the regular season — threw a shot past Buffalo goalie Dominik Hasek at 13:01 of overtime to give the Penguins a 3-2 victory in Game 7 of the second round at HSBC Arena.
April 25, 2009 – The Penguins spotted Philadelphia a 3-0 lead in Game 6 of the opening round at the Wells Fargo Center, then ran off five unanswered goals for a 5-3 victory and a berth in the second round. Teammates pointed to Max Talbot fighting Flyers forward Daniel Carcillo 14 seconds before Ruslan Fedotenko scored the Penguins’ first goal as the turning point in the game.
May 13, 2009 – If Frank Pietrangelo hadn’t made The Save 18 years earlier, Marc-Andre Fleury surely would have been credited with it after gloving Washington winger Alex Ovechkin’s shot on a breakaway a few minutes into what became a 6-2 Penguins victory in Game 7 of the second round at Verizon Center.
June 9, 2016 – The story was not so much what happened inside Consol Energy Center — a 4-2 San Jose victory in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final — as it was the many thousands of fans who watched the game on large screens outside the arena and in Market Square, and the general buzz in the city as the Penguins had their only chance to date to clinch a Cup on home ice.
May 25, 2017 – On the 26th anniversary of the Penguins’ first Cup, Chris Kunitz scored his second goal of the game at 5:09 of the second overtime to give them a 3-2 victory against Ottawa in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final at PPG Paints Arena. It was just the fourth time in 11 tries that the Penguins won a Game 7 on home ice.
Dave Molinari: dmolinari@Post-Gazette.com and Twitter @MolinariPG
First Published: April 5, 2018, 3:23 p.m.
