The ending to the Penguins' 3-2 shootout victory over the Rangers on Saturday night came amid such mayhem it might be best summarized by noting that the second word of this sentence actually should be pluralized.
Endings.
Because there were two: The Penguins lost, and then they won.
And unlike Dewey defeating Truman, this wasn't a matter of faulty reporting but a matter of fact. At least for a minute or so.
"Crazy. So crazy," Evgeni Malkin would describe the scene later. "We were all in locker room, and they tell us, 'Go back! Go back!' "
That crazy.
If you were inside Consol Energy Center, you still might not have believed what you witnessed. And not just because there's an excellent chance you left before the contest was legitimately decided, fairly thinking that it already had been because, oh, you know, the winning shootout goal was pushed behind Marc-Andre Fleury by New York's Dan Boyle, the final score was lit up on the big board, the final horn blew not once but twice, both benches emptied, Henrik Lundqvist was high-fiving all his fellow Rangers as they filed off, all three stars had been announced and, in what really should have sealed the deal, Dan Potash had set down his microphone because there would be no happy postgame interview with a home-team player.
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