Installment No. 7 in an occasional series highlighting the most memorable game in which players participated as a member of the Penguins.
Player: Phil Bourque
Date: April 21, 1989
Game: Game 3 in second-round playoff series
Site: Spectrum, Philadelphia
Result: Penguins, 4-3 (overtime)
Three stars: 1) Penguins LW Phil Bourque. 2) Penguins G Tom Barrasso. 3) Flyers C Ron Sutter.
It is perfectly understandable that the final sequence of the game made an indelible impression on Bourque.
It’s hard to imagine that it wouldn’t have.
That Bourque wouldn’t recall the way Robbie Brown, carrying the puck down the left side, eluded Mark Howe, Philadelphia’s outstanding defenseman.
How Brown then slid the puck toward the Flyers’ net, and how Bourque rapped it between the legs of goalie Ron Hextall to give the Penguins a 4-3 overtime victory in the Spectrum, where their grim legacy was headlined by a 15-year, 42-game winless streak that remains the most dispiriting stretch in franchise history:
So, yeah, an overtime game-winner there during the playoffs isn’t the kind of thing a guy is likely to forget.
“It wasn’t like a fluke goal,” Bourque said. “It was a pretty goal, a beautiful pass. (Brown) slithered his way down the left wall past Mark Howe and was able to throw a beautiful pass to me.”
And Bourque, who has experienced the misery that was part of every trip the Penguins made across the Commonwealth during his early years in the NHL, fully appreciated the magnitude of what he and his teammates accomplished that night.
“Against that team,” he said. “And in that building.”
But Bourque’s recall isn’t limited to how he ended the game.
He has some pretty vivid memories of how it began, too.
Understandably so, considering what transpired when he lined up opposite the guy who ranks seventh on the NHL’s all-time penalty-minutes list for the first faceoff of the evening.
“Craig Berube, at the opening faceoff, said, ‘As soon as the puck drops, we’re going,’ ” Bourque said, meaning that they would fight.
That Flyers coach Paul Holmgren, whose playing philosophy had been that no problem was so great that it couldn’t be fixed by breaking someone’s facial bones, penciled Berube into his starting lineup sent an unmistakeable message long before the explicit one Berube delivered.
“For him to start the game, you knew what was going to happen,” Bourque said. “So when he said, ‘We’re going,’ I certainly wasn’t going to say, ‘No.’ ”
Well, perhaps he would have had he contemplated it a bit more, because the outcome of a fight between Bourque and Berube had about as much suspense as that surrounding Kim Jong-un’s next bid for elected office in North Korea.
Bourque was fearless and feisty, and perhaps that gave him a puncher’s chance against Berube.
Could have, anyway.
But it didn’t.
“I know I didn’t do well in the fight,” Bourque said. “I know I didn’t get my face bashed in, because I still participated in the game.”
Yeah, the scoresheet’s rundown of the game-ending goal confirms that.
And it turns out that Bourque got a lot more than a fighting major and 10-minute misconduct for agreeing to trade punches with a guy like Berube.
“You know how it is,” he said. “It’s not part of ‘The Code’ or anything like that, but you get a certain respect, not only from your teammates but from the opposition, if you just answer the bell. When I finally got to the bench or got in the locker room between the first and second periods, I know my teammates appreciated what I had done, even though I didn’t win the fight.
“You were a gamer, willing to show up and fight a guy you probably would never fight in any other situation, but you did it, and you didn’t hesitate to do it. It probably gave me a little confidence in the game.”
(Max Talbot would reinforce the validity of Bourque’s words during Game 6 of Round 1 in Philadelphia in 2009, when he agreed to fight Flyers tough guy Daniel Carcillo. Philadelphia had a 3-0 lead when Carcillo pummeled Talbot. The Penguins scored the next five goals and, in the process, closed out the series en route to the franchise’s third Stanley Cup.)
A lot transpired between the time Bourque squared off with Berube and when he scored the goal that gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead in a series the Flyers would go on to win in seven games.
Mario Lemieux and Dan Quinn beat Hextall to stake the Penguins to a 2-0 lead, but Keith Acton and Brian Propp countered for Philadelphia. And after Jock Callander restored the Penguins’ advantage late in the second period, Dave Poulin beat Tom Barrasso early in the third to set up the overtime.
Which ended in one of the Penguins’ most invigorating victories to that point in their playoff history.
And with a goal that cemented the evening’s place in Bourque’s memory.
“Knowing the history — against Philly, and in the Spectrum — to have to fight Berube at the opening puck drop in a playoff game, just that would have been memorable,” he said. “But then to score in overtime …”
