Recalling Our Own Game 7 Catastrophe: The Best Penguins Team to Never Win a Cup

As disappointed as I was with the Penguins’ sorry finish to the season, I can’t imagine how hockey fans are feeling in Boston, Denver and New York right now. Especially in Beantown, where the juggernaut Bruins shattered NHL records for regular-season wins (65) and points (135). Eclipsing even the powerhouse Montreal teams of the mid-to-late ‘70s.

On second thought, maybe I can appreciate the depth of their frustration, disappointment and despair.

Following on the heels of back-to-back Cups, the 1992-93 Penguins were arguably the finest team in franchise history, an opinion shared by none other than the incomparable Mario Lemieux.

“This is the best team I ever played with,” Lemieux observed. “We have three lines that can score a lot of goals, a lot of guys who can put the puck in the net. … It’s pretty tough to find, guys who score 30, 40, 50 goals, which we have on every line.”

Mario wasn’t exaggerating. The Pens’ captain scored 69 goals…sandwiched around a two-month layoff due to radiation treatment for Hodgkin’s disease! Kevin Stevens, the premier power forward of his day, had 55. Rough-and-tumble Rick Tocchet notched 48. Emerging superstar Jaromir Jagr and Joey Mullen each topped 30 goals. Speedy rookie Shawn McEachern scored 28. Ron Francis and Larry Murphy…20 plus.

Toss in Tom Barrasso, a tower of strength in goal, and an underrated defense led by Murphy and the unsweetened Swedes, Ulf and Kjell Samuelsson, and you had a veritable threshing machine on ice.

Following Mario’s dramatic return in March, the Pens went on a record setting 17-0-1 tear. Racking up 56 wins and 119 points, they easily captured the Presidents’ Trophy. A third-straight Stanley Cup was a virtual lock.

Who would stop them?

Certainly not New Jersey, their first-round playoff opponent. The Pens throttled the poor Devils by a combined score of 13-3 in Games 1 and 2 en route to a leisurely five-game conquest. Along the way they won their 14th consecutive playoff game, an NHL record that still stands.

On deck…the New York Islanders. Although they possessed underrated firepower in 30-goal men Benoit Hogue, Derek King and Steve Thomas, the Isles were a largely nondescript team that relied more on elbow grease than pure talent. Their lone superstar, Pierre Turgeon, would miss the majority of the series with a separated shoulder.

Nobody expected New York to offer much of a challenge…except perhaps the Islanders themselves. Displaying the tenacity of a junkyard dog, they pushed the mighty Pens to a seventh and deciding game.

Game 7 opened with a bang. Determined to diffuse the Islanders’ body-bending tactics, Stevens skirmished with Brad Dalgarno at the opening draw. Moments later Stevens found Rich Pilon in his crosshairs and hurled his big frame into the rugged defenseman. The booming check sent Pilon flying off his skates, but it was Stevens who got the worst of the collision. Pilon’s visor caught him flush in the face. Knocked unconscious, the burly winger struck the ice face-first with a sickening thud.

A hush fell over the Civic Arena crowd as Stevens lay motionless. After several minutes the big winger came to his senses, but he was in no condition to continue. He had suffered a host of gruesome facial injuries. The sight of “Artie” being wheeled off the ice on a stretcher sickened his teammates and the fans.

Although badly shaken, the Pens responded like champions. Francis sent Lemieux steaming in on a shorthanded breakaway, but Mario struck iron. Murphy, Lemieux and Tocchet teamed up on a crisp tic-tac-toe passing play, but Glenn Healy made an equally brilliant pad save. At the 13-minute mark Lemieux unleashed a beautiful spinning shot, only to be denied again by the acrobatic goalie.

The rest of the period followed the same pattern. The Pens fired shot after shot at Healy, only to come up empty. Despite outshooting the Islanders 19–7, they had nothing to show for their efforts.

Undaunted, the Pens continued to turn up the heat in the second frame. Lemieux had another shorthanded opportunity, but was once again repelled by Healy. We finally broke through at 7:59, when an Ulf Samuelsson slap shot found the mark. However, the tough defenseman would soon turn from hero to goat. Late in the period Hogue picked off Ulfie’s outlet pass and set up Thomas for the Islanders’ first goal.

Again, the Pens had dominated play, limiting New York to just four shots during the period. Again, they had nothing to show for it.

Thanks to Healy’s spectacular goaltending, the Islanders had survived the onslaught. And in the third period they returned with some fire of their own. Six minutes into the frame they grabbed a 2–1 lead on a pretty play by David Volek and Ray Ferraro. The visitors increased their lead moments later when Hogue fired a routine slap shot that deflected off Murphy’s stick and past Barrasso.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the ice Healy continued to make save after save as the black-and-gold desperately pressed for a goal. With less than five minutes remaining our hopes seemed to vanish for good when Lemieux was ushered to the penalty box with Uwe Krupp.

Remarkably, our great fighting spirit surfaced one more time. At 16:38, Murphy gained possession of the puck behind the Islanders’ goal and fed it to Francis, who whacked a knuckler past Healy.

Then, with exactly one minute remaining on the clock and an empty net yawning behind him, Murphy took a pass from Mullen and ripped off a quick shot. The puck bounded crazily off Francis to Tocchet, who deflected it home. The sellout crowd exploded in an emotional roar as the team celebrated one of the most spectacular comebacks in Stanley Cup history.

Hell-bent on putting the Islanders away, the Pens went for the quick kill in overtime. Lemieux had a great chance to tally the game winner. For all his wondrous ability, No. 66 was unable to work the puck through the Islanders’ defense to a wide-open net.

Undeterred, the Pens continued to press the attack. At the four-minute mark Mario headmanned the puck to Francis, who was streaking toward the Islanders’ zone. The veteran center cut loose a wicked slap shot, but Healy made a spectacular glove save to blunt what would be our final scoring chance.

Moments later, with Ulf Samuelsson pinching to keep an offensive flurry alive, the Islanders gained possession of the puck and burst into our end on an odd-man break. Volek took a pass from Ferraro in full stride and blasted the puck over Barrasso’s shoulder.

In the blink of an eye, our two-year reign as Stanley Cup champions was over.

“We put ourselves in a position where anything could happen and the worst did,” lamented Barrasso.

Years later, Francis still felt the sting. “You never know when or even if you’re going to get back [to the Finals],” he said. “Look at our ’93 team. That was our best team and we didn’t win the Cup. You just never know.”