By Tam Nguyen, Nguoi Viet
Sixty grueling minutes of hockey. Ninety minutes of soccer on an excruciatingly hot day. An hour of bruising football.
And it all comes down to this: sudden death.
Once that final buzzer sounds to end regulation and the score is tied, sudden death ensues in many sports. And there is nothing more agonizing for players and fans than an action-packed game with countless twists and turns that can end in a flash.
In the National Hockey League, a regular-season game can end in a tie, for example. No such thing in the postseason. Every game must have a winner – and be played until it does. That’s when sudden death is at its most cruel or most exhilarating: when an instant loss can end a season.
Such overtimes become legendary. For example, in 2000 during the NHL playoffs, a game between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins went to five overtime periods until Keith Primeau scores the game-winning goal for the Flyers. And that wasn’t even the longest. That honor belongs to the Montreal Maroons and the Detroit Red Wings, who once played a six-overtime game.
Keith Primeau scores the game winner in the 5th overtime period. Image from video by NHL.
An NHL game is only three periods with 20 minutes each. Six overtime periods on top of the regulation time meant the teams played the equivalent of three full games in one day.
It is tiring for the players. For the fans, an overtime game can turn into a moment they will never forget.
Tiffany Le, an 28-year-old Santa Ana, Calif., resident, still remembers the World Cup final match in 1999.
“The most exciting game for me was the U.S. women’s national soccer team against China in the World Cup final,” Le said.
“Not only was I there, that happened to be my first game watching it live, and I was in and out of my seat thinking the ball would go in the net in the extra time,” she said.
After the overtime period it was sudden death, or what is called the golden goal. “I almost fell off my seat when I thought Mia Hamm had scored the golden goal but the ball went wide,” Le said.
The game eventually went to a shootout, and Team USA won when Brandi Chastain made the deciding extra kick, and then famously took off her jersey.
Brandi Chastain taking off her jersey moments after the winning goal. Photo from AP.
“My heart was pounding so hard that I thought it was going to jump out of my chest,” Le said.
She remembers the moment Chastain lined up to kick the ball.
“The crowd in my section went quiet until the ball went in the net, and that’s when the whole place just blew up,” she said. “I didn’t realize she (Chastain) took off her jersey until I got home that night and watched the news,” she said.
Whether it’s hockey, soccer, or any sport, sudden death is the most amazing time a fan can have. To the athletes, thanks for the most memorable moments you have created in sudden death.
