This day in Penguin historical past: 3 video games, 2 OT objectives, 2 Capital eliminations

Happy Sunday everybody. We’re kicking it again to essential occasions on a sleepy Sunday and there’s quite a bit happening for May tenth in your Penguin historical past books to look again on and bear in mind.

2001: Kasparaitis the hero

It’s generally mentioned {that a} playoff OT aim can come from essentially the most unlikely of sources, and it didn’t get way more unlikely than defenseman Darius Kasparaitis scoring on a main Dominik Hasek. But that’s precisely what occurred in Game 7 on May 10, 2001 for the Penguins.

Kasparaitis solely scored three objectives within the different 93 video games he performed that season, regardless of logging prime pair minutes and getting loads of time with gamers like Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Alexei Kovalev, Martin Straka and Robert Lang. Generating offense wasn’t what Kasparaitis was recognized for.

In the primary image above, the second is captured on the faces of his teammates with equal components of pure pleasure blended with full shock that he was the one to step up and rating one of the crucial unlikely Game 7 OT objectives in historical past. To reiterate, this was in opposition to a goalie who was on his technique to profitable his sixth Vezina trophy in an eight 12 months span. Hasek held the high-scoring Pens to solely 15 objectives in 451 minutes of the collection and regarded like he was about to will his Buffalo crew to the following spherical till this one snuck by him.

2016: Bonino turns into a legend

Another May tenth, one other time beyond regulation win in Penguins historical past. This was the sport that took years off all our lives when Chris Kunitz, Nick Bonino and Ian Cole all went to the penalty field inside a two minute span for clearing the puck over the glass within the defensive zone within the third interval. As a consequence, a 3-1 Pittsburgh lead acquired worn out to ship the sport to time beyond regulation.

Enter Bonino to place himself in franchise lore with the time beyond regulation winner. Linemates Carl Hagelin and Phil Kessel (twice) additionally scored objectives within the 4-3 victory. Pittsburgh dispatches the 120-point Capitals on this sixth sport of the collection to maneuver on and head for his or her third Stanley Cup in franchise historical past. Luckily for them, they stored the puck in play lengthy sufficient to outlive.

2017: Fleury saves his finest for final

Much like on this date in 1992, the Penguins regarded like they have been on the ropes heading into this tenth of May in 2017. Another effort at defending a championship was deeply unsure. Matt Murray was out, and Marc-Andre Fleury gave up 9 whole objectives in Games 5+6 as Washington tried to roar again from a 3-1 collection deficit and acquire a measure of revenge from the prior 12 months’s elimination. The Caps have been again at house and had all of the momentum after roundly outplaying Pittsburgh within the prior few video games. The finish consequence appeared written on the wall that Game 7 could be the turning level of the Pens/Caps rivalry. Until it wasn’t.

Fleury was in a position to tune all of it out and supply one final superb second, standing on his head and profitable Game 7 due to stopping all 29 pictures he noticed, together with stopping an Alex Ovechkin shot with the knob of his stick. It wouldn’t be the final sport he ever performed for the Pens (Fleury appeared in three extra video games within the subsequent collection in opposition to Ottawa) nevertheless it was his final actually main second within the highlight. In some ways, it encaptured the complete Fleury expertise: bouncing again from some lackluster outings to realize final victory in the long run with an unequivocally nice efficiency. Bryan Rust added to his lore by scoring what stood as the sport profitable aim, Patric Hornqvist tacked on a much-welcomed insurance coverage aim within the third interval and the Pens held on for expensive life from there.