Players And Some Fans Stay Up Past Bedtime For Marathon Hockey Game

Night had long ago turned to early morning.

All that remained of the sellout crowd was a few thousand fans who had been waiting more than 3 hours to see someone put the puck in the net.

As the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins entered the fourth overtime of their Stanley Cup playoff game, only two questions remained:

Who would win? And would the Zamboni run out of gas before the players did?

The Penguins and Capitals might as well go directly to Game 6 of their playoff series, because Game 4 was the equivalent of two games - and then some. By the time the marathon ended in the wee hours of Thursday morning, many of the fans who had dinner at the USAir Arena 6 hours earlier were ready for breakfast.

Pittsburgh goaltender Ken Wregget didn’t start the game but ended up with a franchise-record 53 saves in the Penguins’ 3-2 victory. Wregget and Washington goalie Olaf Kolzig kept the game scoreless for the equivalent of a game-and-a-half before Petr Nedved scored a powerplay goal with 44.6 seconds left in the fourth overtime to end the longest NHL game in six decades.

It started at 7:38 p.m. and mercifully ended at 2:15 a.m. The fans that stuck it out had to do so without food or drink, because the concession stands shut down well before midnight. Pittsburgh outshot Washington 65-63 and tied the best-of-seven series at 2-2. Game 5 is Friday in Pittsburgh.

“I’m about 4 hours past my bedtime,” said Pittsburgh’s Ron Francis. “That was a long, long hockey game.”