The agony of defeat comes in many flavors. For the Sharks, it
arrived Tuesday night on a double-overtime, double-skipped puck
into their net to end the Western Conference finals at Vancouver.
Another Stanley Cup dream didn’t just vanish. This bizarre exit
deserves a spot on the gravestone that marks other painful defeats
in Bay Area sports lore.
The agony of defeat comes in many flavors.
For the Sharks, it arrived Tuesday night on a double-overtime, double-skipped puck into their net to end the Western Conference finals at Vancouver. Another Stanley Cup dream didn’t just vanish. This bizarre exit deserves a spot on the gravestone that marks other painful defeats in Bay Area sports lore.
The Sharks’ Game 5 gut punch went like this: A puck clanked off a dividing stanchion in the glass and ricocheted to the middle of the ice where only the Canucks’ Kevin Bieksa found it. He quickly bounced a slap shot past disoriented goaltender Antti Niemi for a 3-2 Sharks defeat.
Some are calling it the “Immaculate Deflection.” That’s too easy. Try another twist from Raiders history: “The Post to the Ghost,” signifying that helpful stanchion and the puck’s mysterious whereabouts.
How does the Sharks’ latest agony rank on the Bay Area’s meter for cruel finishes? Let’s review the top 10 daggers:
1. The Immaculate Reception. Walk through Pittsburgh’s airport and you’ll see a statue of the Steelers’ Franco Harris leaning over to scoop up a football. That immortalized moment traces to the 1972 Raiders’ death knell. Harris scored on a 60-yard touchdown “reception” to cap a 13-7 divisional-playoff triumph. He picked up a Terry Bradshaw pass before it hit the ground and after it bounced off John “Frenchy” Fuqua when Fuqua got drilled by Raiders safety Jack Tatum.
2. The Play. The Stanford band was out on the field, and so were five laterals by Cal’s 1982 football team on a last-play kickoff return that produced a Big Game-winning touchdown. The 25-20 defeat denied Stanford quarterback John Elway an ensuing bowl game in his farewell season, and Kevin Moen’s touchdown celebration ruined Gary Tyrrell’s trombone. But Joe Starkey’s radio call echoes to this day as the “most amazing, sensational, dramatic, heart-rending, exciting, thrilling finish in the history of college football!”
3. Roger Craig’s Fumble. A not-so-funny thing happened on the 49ers’ way to a third consecutive Super Bowl title. Craig fumbled in the fourth quarter while the 49ers tried running out the clock with a 13-12 lead over the New York Giants in the 1990 NFC title game. The Giants converted that turnover into a game-winning field goal, Craig left as a free agent for the Raiders and Joe Montana never started another 49ers playoff game. Craig may have scored three touchdowns in the 1984 49ers’ Super Bowl win, and he may have become the first NFL player to eclipse 1,000 yards both rushing and receiving in a season (1985), but one costly fumble also is etched into his legacy.
4. Gibson’s Homer Off Eckersley. A World Series is not lost in Game 1, or is it? The 1988 World Series provided one of baseball’s all-time dramatic home runs that also spelled doom for the A’s. A gimpy Kirk Gibson came off the bench to drill a walk-off, two-run home run into Dodger Stadium’s right-field bleachers off Dennis Eckersley, MVP from the A’s preceding ALCS sweep of the Boston Red Sox. That full-count, two-out blast off Eckersley’s backdoor slider gave the Dodgers a 5-4 win. Five days later, the A’s were finished off in Game 5.
5. McCovey’s Line Drive. The Giants may be reigning World Series champions, but San Francisco’s first title was 48 years past due. Willie McCovey lined out to second baseman Bobby Richardson to end the 1962 World Series, stranding runners at second and third in a 1-0, Game 7 loss to the New York Yankees at Candlestick Park.
6. Tuck Rule. Raider Nation never will forget the injustice it endured by referee Walt Coleman’s enforcement of an obscure rule, one that turned a Tom Brady fumble into an incompletion in the waning minutes of a 2001 divisional playoff game at New England. The Raiders couldn’t regroup. Five plays later, Adam Vinatieri kicked a game-tying field goal through snow showers, and his overtime field goal gave the Patriots a 16-13 win that sparked a run of three Super Bowl titles in four seasons.
7. Post to the Ghost. Conference finals. Double overtime. Dumb luck, disappearing puck. Now you see it, now you’re done. Vancouver media are calling for a ceremonial retirement of the stanchion that deflected the puck and set up Bieksa’s goal. Apparently, a stanchion also redirected a puck that resulted in an icing call on the Sharks shortly before the Canucks’ tying goal with 13.2 seconds left in regulation. Yes, the Sharks lost for the seventh time in nine games and trailed 3-1 in the series. But unlike their other 19 seasons that ended without a Stanley Cup, these dreams were crushed while they were looking the other way.
8. Dusty’s Handoff. Rewind to Game 6 of the 2002 World Series, when the Giants were eight outs shy of popping champagne in Anaheim. Manager Dusty Baker made a fateful trip to the mound to take out Russ Ortiz, but before Ortiz headed to the dugout with a 5-0 lead, Baker gave him the ball as a memento. Scott Spiezio promptly belted a three-run homer off Felix Rodriguez, the Angels rallied for a 6-5 win, then they knocked off the Giants 4-1 in Game 7. The Giants were forever cursed “¦ until 2010.
9. Immaculate Comeback, Take 2. Later on the same day as Pittsburgh’s Immaculate Reception (Dec. 23, 1972), the 49ers endured a 30-28 heartbreaker to the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC playoffs. Roger Staubach came off the bench at Candlestick to throw two touchdown passes in the final 11/2 minutes, with Dallas recovering an onside kick between those scoring strikes to Billy Parks and Ron Sellers. Nine seasons after that collapse under coach Dick Nolan, the 49ers returned to the playoffs and atoned with the first of three Super Bowl wins under Bill Walsh.
10. Quadruple OT. What makes the 2008 Sharks’ departure so compelling is the four-overtime nature of their 2-1, Game 6 defeat in the conference semifinals at Dallas. The Sharks sought their third straight win after falling in an 0-3 hole. They hoped for another overtime winner like Joe Pavelski provided in Game 5 two nights earlier in San Jose. They were eliminated respectfully and honorably, killed off by Brenden Morrow’s power-play goal.
— Column by Cam Inman, Contra Costa Times
