JACKSONVILLE, Fla – Yes, I know. I’ve written commentaries recently for PHN about as often as Halley’s Comet visits this part of the solar system. 
It’s hasn’t been because I have lost interest, it is because I really haven’t had all that much to say. Just my humble opinion, but nothing has really happened to jump out, knock me over the head and say “look at me”
That’s what Game 1 of the North Division ECHL playoffs between Elmira and Trenton did for me. I’ve never seen either team play. I saw Trenton play once but that was when they were the Titans and lost the deciding game to South Carolina in the Kelly Cup Finals a few years back. But, looking at it from afar, I had to be envious of what the Titans’ fans got to witness on Friday, April 10th. 
The simple fact is, and it has been stated repeatedly, is that overtime playoff hockey is as good as it gets. I’ve seen my team win and my team lose in overtime all the way back to the Hampton Gulls. What is funny about that is that the two most memorable overtime games that I saw, I saw on television. The Hampton Roads Admirals were playing the hated Greensboro Generals in the 1991 Riley Cup Finals and the ABC station in Hampton Roads was televising the game back to the area from Greensboro. In fact, they had gone out and hired the late Tom Mees from ESPN for play-by-play. The game ended right after 1am on April 10th with the Admirals winning 2-1 in 
the third overtime. The Admirals would go on to win the first of their two consecutive Kelly Cup titles a night or two later. What I also remember about that game was that I had to be at work at 6am. Needless to say, I wasn’t all that effective at work the next day. The other was the classic Easter Sunday NHL playoff game between the NY Islanders and Washington Capitals, when Pat LaFontaine defeated Bob Mason to win a 4 overtime game 3-2 that started on Saturday night and finished Easter Sunday morning. I always remember that game because I miss all of regulation play and just got home from work in time for overtime. It was a memorable game because of the play of Mason and the Islanders’ Kelly Hrudey. That’s what is great about playoff hockey. You don’t know when you will get that “classic” game to remember. I got to watch those two classic games on TV. I got to see a minor-league pitcher by the name of Marty 
Bystrom throw a perfect game once. You just don’t know when you will get to see that “moment”, like when Rod Taylor climbed on the goal to celebrate the Hampton Roads Admirals defeating the Peoria Rivermen in the 1998 Kelly Cup Finals, the year the Admirals won their third ECHL title. And I wish I had been there for that.
Contact the writer at Kenneth.holdren@prohockeynews.com
