10 best NHL Stanley Cup Playoff overtime goals of the 2010s
By Mike Zawisza
Prior to the pause, the Stanley Cup Playoffs were set to begin this Saturday. Since that’s no longer the plan, let’s satiate our collective appetites for playoff madness by looking at the 10 best playoff overtime goals from the past decade.
Sudden-death overtime. For sports connoisseurs, few phrases are laced with more inherent excitement, drama and anxiety. Add the playoffs into the mix and you’ve created a union that can age a viewer 10 years in a matter of 10 minutes.
More than 200 overtime goals have been scored in the Stanley Cup playoffs since 2010, and each one holds a certain significance to fans across the hockey world. However, some hold more weight than others. There are goals that live on in the collective consciousness regardless of allegiances and rooting interests.
These are the 10 most notable Stanley Cup playoff overtime goals of the 2010s.
10. Claude Giroux – 2010 Stanley Cup Final, Game 3
Am I biased as a Philadelphia Flyers fan? Perhaps, but the 2009-2010 Flyers almost completed one hell of a Cinderella story. After clinching the seventh seed on the final day of the regular season in a win-and-in shootout vs the New York Rangers, the Flyers pieced together one of the most memorable runs to the Stanley Cup Final in recent memory.
The Flyers dunked on the second seeded New Jersey Devils in round one, pulled off a historic reverse sweep against the Boston Bruins in round two and then absolutely steamrolled the Montreal Canadiens in the conference final. This secured them a date with the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Final — a team that was full of young upstarts and future superstars.
Going down 2-0 after the first two games in Chicago, the Flyers returned home to the confines of the Wachovia Center (now Wells Fargo Center). Game 3 was a frantic, back-and-forth affair with the Flyers leading 1-0, 2-1 and the Blackhawks leading 3-2 in the third. After the Flyers tied it early in the final frame, the game headed to OT.
With just under six minutes played in the extra period, Claude Giroux redirected a pass from Matt Carle through the legs of Blackhawks goalie Antti Niemi to give the Flyers a 4-3 win and bring them one step closer to their first Cup since 1975. Spoiler: they wouldn’t pull it off.
Despite coming up two games short, this goal is the summation of one of the biggest underdog stories of the modern NHL and marks the arrival of Claude Giroux as more than just an auxiliary player.
Giroux’s goal was the first overtime goal in the Stanley Cup since 2008 and helped kick off what would become an electric decade of NHL hockey.
Unfortunately for myself and other Flyers fans, Giroux’s winner often gets overshadowed by a certain other goal scored in the same series. Stay tuned.