The Rampage had just blown a 2 goal lead in the 3rd period. The second, coming off the stick of the man I know only as "Darren F'ing Haydar". 25+ minutes of sudden death had accomplished nothing except reducing my life span several months.
Then, after a couple of pucks off Wolves sticks fortuitously found iron instead of net, and after a sprawling Jacob Markstrom made a remarkable poke check on Jeremy Davies, the puck was sent the length of the ice for what was sure to be an icing infraction against the Rampage.
But "Wild" Bill Thomas was tired and wanted to go home. So Billy got on his proverbial horse and beat the defender to the puck, crashing violently into the boards. It looked a lot like this:
Somehow, Jon Matsumoto was able to dig the puck out from two Chicago players. He made a nifty move around a third and found a streaking...wait...Roman Derlyuk?!?!? Derlyuk doing his best Bobby Orr impersonation buried the game winner:
(click link for audio)
Chaos ensued. My wife squealed. I yelled a simple, "YES!" and raised my fist in defiance. I've waited five years for a moment like this. I swear I could hear the 600 die-hard Rampage fans all around the 210. Back on the ice in Chicago, the Rampage swarmed the young Russian, including a surprisingly agile Matsumoto leap:
Life was good in Rampageland. No matter what happens from this point on, we will always remember the team that refuses to quit and gets historic goals from the unlikeliest of places.
Photo Credit: Chris Jerina (@chrisjerina / chrisjerina.smugmug.com )
Audio credit: Dan Weiss (@SARampage_Voice) and www.sarampage.com
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