“The courage and desire they(Elmira) displayed on Saturday night will not soon be forgotten by the Murray Center crowd of 4,000 which witnessed the Eagles’ gutsy performance.”
Ed Weaver - Elmira Star-Gazette(3/10/91)

How prophetic Ed turned out to be.

It’s been seventeen years since I was in The Domes on that night. Since that time, I’ve witnessed hundreds of sports events from from all corners of the continent. Saw the euphoria of a playoff series winning overtime goal at home, personally witnessed the heartbreak of the Music City Miracle, of No Goal. Seen three pointers at the buzzer to win, walkoff homeruns, four home runs in a single game by one player…hell, I’ll add the Sharpie and Strahan’s record breaking “sack” to that list.

But ask me today what sporting event, what one game stands out to me as the game? The one that stands out above all others ever seen live in the span of my lifetime?

Mercyhurst @ Elmira, NCAA Division III Hockey Quarterfinal, Game 2
March 9, 1991

Surprised? Just read on and see why this small college game ranks above all others in my book.

This best of two miniseries would be the fourth and fifth meetings between these two rivals in the ‘90-1 season. Elmira was in the midst of another glorious season in which they had won twenty six and lost only three. Yet two of those three had come at the hands of Mercyhurst, who had gone 18-6 against non Division I teams. Despite the presence of four players who were or would become All American’s Elmira was clearly Mercyhurst’s bitch.

Game one of the miniseries went to Mercyhurst 5-4 as Elmira fell behing 3-0 and never recovered. Under the best of two playoff format, all Mercyhurst had to do was get a tie in Game Two the next night to win the series. An Elmira win would force a fifteen minute “mini-game” immediately afterward to determine a series winner.

Win or you’re done against the last team you could possibly wish to face. Such was the scenario for the Elmira fans headed inside the Murray Center on that night. Nervous, on edge and yet charged up. The joint was ready to help energize the Soaring Eagles onto victory.

And at the end of the first period the score was 5-1!!!

Mercyhurst 5, Elmira 1.

For the first twenty minutes, Mercyhurst went and b*tch slapped Elmira around like the puppies they had been all season long against them. And obviously as a result the boisterous pre game energy was shot and “The Domes” had become more like a tomb on this night. A tomb for the 1990-91 Eagles season to be precise. I went out into the concourses to grab some grub and drink and be generally ticked off.

I’ll never know what exactly was said in the Elmira locker room during that intermission, were they threatened with deportation? To be kicked off scholarship? Sentenced to a Turkish prison if they lost??

Whatever it was it worked like a charm as the Eagles stormed back with four goals in the first nine minutes of play of the second period to tie the game at five, and a venue that had had all the atmosphere of a morgue in the first period had transistioned into the euphoric state of a madhouse at this point. Elmira appeared to go ahead late in the period but the goal was waved off as a crease violation and the second stanza ended tied at five.

Of course Mercyhurst would strike just seconds in the third to retake the lead. Now remember, no overtime, and a tie was effectively a loss here so again the venue was deflated, very deflated. Yet Elmira struck back just a minute or so later, and then would take the lead for the first time in the game on a goal with about thirteen minutes to go. I remember thinking….don’t stop….we gotta score again…too much time left!

That’s when EC’s Tom O’Brien stepped in, he made save after phenomenal save including a season saver without his stick in the final minutes of play. Amazingly enough, a game with thirteen goals thus far would go scoreless through the final thirteen minutes. Game Two Final: Elmira 7, Mercyhurst 6…..bring on the mini game!!!

A little backdrop before I go on. While fans were excited to see the night continue, the minigame concept brought back bad memories for many from just a year prior. In 1990 EC was the #1 team in the land headed into the quarterfinal series against SUNY Plattsburgh at home. The two teams split and in the minigame Plattsburgh scored early and held on win in front of a stunned silent Domes.

So guess what happens on this occassion? You got it, Mercyhurst lights the lamp in the first couple minutes and again the collective oh s*** groan comes over the audience.
On a positive note however, Elmira had clearly taken over the momentum of the game otherwise as Mercyhurst was just being peppered with shots and constantly in their own end. They held the onslaught off until EC finally found the back of the net with two minutes on the clock to tie the mini game. Season saved again!!!! From there it would be off to ooooooovertime(ten minute periods).

It would take a full sixteen minutes and then some to determine a winner. Once again, Elmira was taking the action to the Lakers and it would be Elmira’s thirty third shot(compared to the Lakers twelve) of the mini game that would bring the contest to its conclusion as Scott Doherty would slap a rebound into a wide open net and his name into the lore of EC hockey. His goal came at approximately 11:42 PM(7PM start) and ended the longest night of hockey in the history of the facility(And still is).

Euphoria. Hysteria. Insanity. You name it, this was the state of things in the stands in the aftermath. The high fives with people you can’t stand otherwise….hugging people you’ve never seen before in your life….and so on. The exhiliration was mind blowing.

There was also this for me and others….exhaustion.

I started to head down the steps, and my body was shaking from head to toe. The mood swings, the celebrations and depressions of the long night had left me emotionally and physically shot. I had to hang onto people until I got to a railing and just stood there, needing screw my head back on, trying to make sense of what I had bore witness to. One thing was that they’d actually won and another was that I didn’t think that I’d ever seen a game quite like that in my life. Never that long, none with that many swings in momentum, none where a team had to rally from a huge hole like that to win under such important circumstances. None where I had left a venue almost needing physical assistance to leave just from the intensity of the game and all of its manifestations.

And above all else, that last point is part of why, even now in another stage of life, and have been fortunate enough to witness what I have. When I think of all the highs, the lows, and in between that the world of sports hath wrought, in the end I keep coming back to a mid March evening in a small town hockey rink far from anywhere. What I saw, experienced, felt….

It has yet to be matched. Seventeen years later.

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