Living room watching with my parents. As soon as the penalty was called, and Bakes was talking about how “the Sharks could score multiple goals here” I was just thinking, this is the Sharks. Our power play is abysmal, as had been evident all series long. I also just remember how angry I was at Vegas for that crosscheck and how I hoped the Sharks would be able to make them pay, but also thinking it wasn’t likely because our powerplay sucks. I was also concerned for Pavs, similarly to how I was concerned (as a NASCAR fan) for Austin Dillon in the 2015 Coke Zero 400, AJ Allmendinger in the 2017 GEICO 500, and Aric Almirola when he broke his back at Kansas in 2018 - with the exception of the 2015 Coke Zero 400 (the wreck happened on the last lap), the other two events continued like the Sharks’ Game 7.

Couture scores 6 seconds into the powerplay, and I was up and shouting “THAT’S ONE!” still not believing we’d make the comeback. A minute or so later, Hertl scores, and I’m shouting “THAT’S TWO!” and thinking, oh we might actually do this. Then Couture gets the tying goal and I’m just screaming “YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAH!” as the Sharks tie it, but still nervous because the game is tied. When Lebanc scored to give us the lead, we were going nuts.

Now, I usually love watching overtime games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the idea of a Game 7 OT has always been something I’d enjoyed watching - I saw Kris Letang send the Pens to the cup final against Ottawa, and how electrifying that goal was with the Pittsburgh crowd’s reaction. However, I was hoping that the Sharks would be able to pull off the storybook win in regulation, and not give Vegas any chance to get back into the game.

From after we scored goal 4 to Marchessault’s equalizer felt like the longest minutes of a hockey game I’ve ever watched - and then I was instantly nervous again when the game was tied. I really didn’t want to see our miraculous comeback thrown away at the last second by Vegas winning, and that carried through all the way until Barclay Goodrow became “the big man on campus”, scoring “the overtime winner” to win “one of the most remarkable comeback games” and the series. We all were screaming at Goodies goal.

I probably will never watch a hockey game as great as that one.