Remembering The Bruins Miraculous Three Goal Comeback Vs The Maple Leafs

(h/t Mike Hurley on this one. Don’t know if I’ve ever seen the crowd shot before)

This week we did a KFC Radio where we discussed a lot of “where were you when…” moments (listen here). Things like Sox in 04, Pats in 07, Bruins collapse in 2010, but since I’m such a miserable person I primarily focused on the bad times. Those always stick out to me more. I remember the valleys with a lot more clarity than I remember the peaks (celebratory adult beverages may play a part in this).

But this night is one of the happy “where were you” moments for me. Perhaps the happiest. The juxtaposition of emotions between 14 minutes to go in the third and that overtime goal is something that’s truly unforgettable. After the Leafs scored their fourth, the sadness sank in. I was texting my dad, texting friends, all of us heartbroken over a season lost. Yes, the Bruins had won the Cup two years earlier but this loss made it feel like more of a fluke rather than a strong, long term core we’d thought we had. As is tradition with the end of a Bruins season, we were texting about how Julien had to go and fresh blood was needed everywhere.

But then Horton scored. You tried to talk yourself out of it, but it’s sports and you’re an idiot so you were immediately back in. One glimpse of hope, one tiny reason to believe and that’s all you need. Ten times out of ten the game still ends in disappointment, but that night was the 11th out of ten.

When it really became real was after Lucic’s goal. That’s when everyone knew something special was happening. I remember watching him immediately skate away from the net, like a soccer player under the thumb of a running clock, then look up at the scoreboard and give a, “LETS GO.” At that point I started deleting texts, as if that could wash away the bad juju of calling for GM’s heads and saying, “Still got Figwai coming up.”

When Bergeron finally did tie it up, it was mayhem. I’m reliving it in my head now, jumping around my apartment, the same apartment where I’d been forced to stay in a “shelter in place” so police could hunt a terrorist just a month earlier, by a spring fire (my first fucking apartment had a goddamn fireplace! I am going in reverse), and hugging my roommates with that awkward “we’re kind hugging but if we want to get technical we’re really humping each other here” move. It was probably one of the three happiest moments of my last half decade and that’s not an exaggeration.

Because at that point it was over. Sure, if you want to play Mr. Well Actually then it was simply tied, but that game was over. It was like the Red Sox coming back from being down 3-0 to tie it at 3-3: I don’t know what’s happening next series, but I can promise you they’re not losing game 7. It was a foregone conclusion that the Bruins weren’t losing that game in overtime. TD Garden was the loudest building in the world at that night and they wouldn’t allow an overtime loss. Fate wouldn’t allow it, the gods wouldn’t allow it, no one with a sense of history would.

Of course, that’s exactly what eventually happened. Bergeron scored to win it because he’s Patrice Bergeron, we got Gouch’s incredible “Bergeron! Bergeron! Bergeron!” call, and all was right in the world for that night. We’d all witnessed one of the greatest comebacks and greatest hockey games that we’re ever going to see. It’s a night I will absolutely never forget, a night so amazing that I’m kinda crying like a little girl right now as I watch the highlights.

Let’s just leave it there and not acknowledge what happened a month later, nor are we to acknowledge the fact that it’s the last time I was truly happy with the Bruins organization. That night three years ago was perfect, and the memory of it is all I need for right now.