The Honest-to-God, Actual Top Ten
10. 2019 Divisional Playoffs - Game 6: San Jose Sharks at Vegas Golden Knights
Game seven gets all the love for an all-time moment in this series, but game 6 lurks in the shadows as another classic. The thing that will always make this game stand out is that everything played exactly the opposite of what you would expect.
The Sharks had perhaps the best team in the NHL that year, if not for one glaring flaw, a league worst save rate behind struggling netminder Martin Jones. With merely an average goaltender, the Sharks probably cruise to the top seed in the Pacific this season but instead they’re in a slugfest with a Golden Knights team that is the defending Western Conference champions, and after digging a 3-1 hole in the series, the Sharks are in a must win on the road.
The recipe for success is, of course, a team record 58 save performance from one, Martin Jones.
For three plus periods, the Knights can’t seem to get anything past Jones, who had essentially gone out of his way to let Vegas have at least one gimme in the first period of every game of the series, and had been pulled twice in the first four games.
As the game moved to a second overtime in a 1-1 tie, it was obvious that the Sharks were being outplayed. You get 58 saves for a reason, namely, the other team gets 58 shots off. The Knights were controlling the puck with ease and the game seemed to live in the San Jose defensive zone.
With 12 minutes to play in the second overtime period, and the Sharks struggling to get a single shot off, the game seemed a foregone conclusion to end when Barclay Goodrow was sent to the penalty box on a really bad slashing call. Despite all the fight, and Jones saving every good play he had in him all season for this single game, it seemed certain that the Sharks were going to be heading into the offseason during that unwarranted power play.
Instead :31 seconds later, after a Marc-Eduard Vlasic takeaway, Tomas Hertl slapped a shorthanded goal with two Knights right on him from the blue line for the game winner. In this game, everything that shouldn’t have happened aligned for the Sharks to push to a seventh game. More on that game seven later……
9. 2015 NCAA Men’s
Championship Tournament – Round 1: Baylor Bears vs. Georgia State Panthers
Ah, March Madness, it’s hard to imagine a list without it. The only event in sports where the national audience’s interest is usually captured more by the first round of the championship playoff than it is by the final. The madness name is well earned, as seemingly every year, a completely unexpected underdog knocks off a goliath of the sport. This decade had bigger moments, a 16 seed toppling a 1 for the first time, Duke and Missouri losing to 15 seeds in the same day, but for end to end entertainment, nothing can top this one.
The Baylor Bears weren’t the most beloved three seed you’ve ever met by any means. Entering the tournament with a 24-10 record, they weren’t favorites of many bracketeers, but they were still a legitimate 3 seed, playing in a ridiculously deep conference all year, the ten losses were hardly a sign of weakness. The Panthers entered at 25-9, a game better, but in a significantly worse conference, and with some sluggish performances in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, they weren’t garnering much attention for upset picks.
Panthers head coach Ron Hunter sat on stool on the sideline, coaching his team with a freshly torn ACL, a memento of his team’s conference championship celebration the previous weekend. The Panthers were up to every bit of the challenge from tip-off, fighting a fairly even first half, and not letting Baylor run away in the second half, until the five minute mark.
The Bears took over, with a 12-1 run that eventually peaked with a 12 point lead with 2:54 left on the clock. With just under three minutes left, it appeared Georgia State was out of gas. Then the Panthers caught fire.
On defense.
Baylor’s team was done scoring for the day, and Panthers forced a litany of turnovers while piling up a 10-0 run to cut the lead to 2 as the clock neared zero. The Panthers took possession with time for a single possession, and looked like the moment was too big for them. The team fumbled the ball upcourt, and with time running out, appeared to have no plan for how to turn the possession into points. Star guard, R.J. Hunter was trapped with the ball and desperate to save the possession threw the ball to a teammate hanging out at the top of the key. As soon as he dumped the ball off, Hunter ran directly behind said teammate, and asked for the ball straight back and launched up a prayer.
The prayer was answered. A 3 point dagger with 2.7 remaining on the clock had given Georgia State the lead. Looking for his second celebratory injury in as many weeks, Ron Hunter, (R.J.’s father by the way) threw his hands up in celebration and toppled backwards off his stool to the ground where the jubilation continued with his back flat on the floor. The game was great, the moment was better, and comedic value will never die.
8. 2017 World Series – Game 5: Los Angeles Dodgers at Houston Astros
This almost got cut, because with hindsight being what it is, the “it just didn’t feel right” category seemed a good place for this to sit as well.
But in the moment, this game sucked me in, and made me care. Baseball doesn’t do that often, and when it does, something special is happening.
Baseball can be a slow game, often the game hinges on which team gets momentum once, unlike this game which turned into a question of who would get it last. The upstart Astros were playing in their second World Series ever, and seeking their first championship ever. The Los Angeles Dodgers are one of the names synonymous with baseball. A long track record of success, but somehow, had not won a championship in thirty seasons. Just a few years earlier, the Astros were on the 76ers plan, seeking to test the success of bring tanking to baseball, and unlike the 76ers, they saw results.
The offense struck early and never slowed down, with each team putting together three innings of at least three runs. The Dodgers put together a three run first to seize control, and a three run ninth, to push the game to extra innings. In a game that started with two all-star pitchers on each mound, we finished 12-12 after nine innings, combining for seven home runs along the way.
In extra innings, the Astros ended the 5 hour, 17 minute marathon when an Alex Bregman single brought Carlos Correa across the plate for a 13-12 win and a 3-2 series lead. The Houston faithful screamed in celebration as the city's first professional sports championship in over two decades neared their reach.
Somewhere in the dugout, an underappreciated trash can longed for its rightful place with the team celebrating at home plate.
7. LSU Tigers at Texas A&M Aggies 11/24/2018
Another Brandel family gathering classic. Thanksgiving weekend 2018, this game sat quietly in the background of an event in that was in no way centered around sports. We worked on puzzles, had light conversations, probably played a game of Ticket to Ride, for three quarters, an eye was kept on the game, but attention was far from fixed on it.
But we didn’t end up needing the first three quarters, because there were still several quarters of football left to play.
Entering this game, the “rivalry” had started to feel like an afterthought. Since joining the SEC in 2012, the Aggies and Tigers had remained remarkably close in the SEC West standings in most seasons, yet the Aggies entered the weekend with an 0 for LSU record in the series over the same time frame. The Aggies had been coached in the previous season by Kevin Sumlin, who brought an air raid offense with him from Houston, and while it worked in spurts, the Tiger trenches had no time for it. They weren’t just winless in the re-introduction of the series, they had usually failed to even be competitive.
But these weren’t those Aggies. First year coach, Jimbo Fisher, a national champion with Florida State, was rebuilding the Aggies into a team more in the normative SEC mold. Most had been in awe with the quickness at which he had turned the Aggies around in this season, and while they weren’t playing for anything nationally important that day, the Aggies had shown a previously unseen grit that year while pushing to a 7-4 record against one of the toughest schedules I’ve ever seen.
But still, this was LSU. The team that outmuscled them soundly every single year.
Not this day though, A&M walked into the fourth quarter nursing a 7 point lead. It appeared that at the very least, they were ready to compete with the Tigers. They proved it through three quarters, and then they proved it for eight more.
In what turned into an absolute marathon, the longest, and highest scoring game of all time, it can be easy to forget that this game wasn’t a shootout in regulation.
I started watching with fervor in the fourth quarter when it became apparent there was a real game happening here, my brother in law Bill, a lifelong LSU fan joined me on the couch to soak it in. With seconds on the clock, A&M needed a score to force overtime, and the play in which they got that score was in and of itself, pretty incredible. On an untimed down, and after a long review, the Aggies were given the game tying score to force a 31-31 tie at the end of regulation.
As the replay of that score was taking place, my sister told Bill that she needed to run an errand on the way home, and Bill told her to just go run it and come back for him, he wanted to watch overtime. And when she got back, we had two overtimes left to go still.
To recap the madness that was this game in words is a waste of time, I can’t do it justice. Go find the highlights, or clear an evening and rewatch the game. For six overtimes, the teams piled up points in the exact amount their opponent did, and it became apparent that both defense were gassed at the end. Eventually, after allowing a Tiger touchdown, the Aggie defense managed to break up the 2-point conversion attempt and celebrate a 7 overtime, 72-74 victory with the 12th man.
The game was so long and wearying on the players, that the NCAA changed the overtime rules in the offseason to ensure that the length would never occur again. I guess that's the difference between amateurism and professional football. I finally found it, the rest built into the third overtime……..
6. 2015 AFC Championship Game: New England Patriots at Denver Broncos
Was this the last time ever?
Entering the game, that appeared to be the question that was surrounding the AFC Championship showdown in Denver in 2016. Peyton Manning had been having the worst season of his career by a wide margin, getting injured, missing starts, then coming back from that injury only to find that Brock Osweiler (yep, that one) had taken his job. In the final game of the regular season, Manning had come off the bench, started in the win in the divisional round, and was clearly limping into the game as a shadow of his former self.
Brady was showing no signs of slowing down. He hadn’t had his best statistical season but he was in the range of the standard people were used to. Maybe as much as passing records or Super Bowl rings, the rivalry of these players had defined their careers. Brady usually coming out on top and usually putting up smaller numbers in the process, the debate often boiled down to which better defines the quarterback: their statistical production or team wins?
The game started completely off script, for this season, and for the history of their matchups. Denver started off hot, with Manning throwing two perfect touchdown passes to the hidden weapon of the offense, Owen Daniels, for an early 14-6 lead. The rivalry for years had come down to Peyton chasing. Brady building an early lead, with a better defense backing him up, and Peyton trying to wield the team back after halftime.
This Denver team wasn’t built like most of those teams Manning played with in Indianapolis. Two years earlier, the Broncos made the Super Bowl and got boatraced by the Legion of Boom Seahawks. Denver learned from the experience, they looked at the tape and said “we can make that here.” In just the nick of time, they proved it, fielding the league’s best defense, and in my opinion, a top three defense of this century. The lead wasn’t big, but it would be enough.
The second half was a non-stop tense game of Denver bending, letting New England move the ball, but keeping them out of the end zone. It was apparent that those two first half tosses to Daniels were about all Manning had in him. They tacked a few field goals on, but the rest was on the defense. It was stressful every drive, and it constantly felt like the Patriots would get it done. In the final minute, with the ability to be patient gone, the Patriots no longer settled for field goals, pushing the fourth downs forward and forcing their way to the end zone with 12 seconds left to play.
Rob Gronkowski was eating the Broncos alive on the final drive, and scored the touchdown. Every eye in the building knew exactly where to watch for the drama on the conversion attempt. A nervous roar built through Sports Authority Field, they couldn’t lose the game on this play, but no one felt good about overtime.
And as we all expected, the two point play was thrown to Gronk, but the pass was broken up and Denver survived. In a normal game, there is probably a pass interference call on the play, if it’s a smaller receiver, he probably gets the benefit of the whistle. As refs do in big moments though, the whistle is swallowed, and they decided the big boys could settle who the better man was. It was a controversial no call but it was one that the Patriots had accepted, they had been in plenty of those moments on the other side too. A failed onside attempt later, and Manning got one final kneel down to win the last showdown of these icons.
Helping the moment and game plenty for me, especially looking back five years later, is that for the last decade (2000-2010) there was really no dispute on who was the better player: Manning, the guy that almost always lost this matchup, largely due to a defense that inevitably would let the game get out of reach. In his final, and worst, season it’s like the collective ghosts of defense past told him “we got this one” and let him go out the way he rarely lived in the rivalry: a winner.
