Playoff overtime is such an alternately evil and glorious beast, and last night’s Game 5 extra period was a fine example. Though the lone overtime was just 12 minutes long, it featured a heart-stopping array of crossbar, post, breakaway, odd-man rush and then some shared by each side.
The “destiny” part of me felt it was the Islanders’ game to win after they completed another late, third-period comeback to force overtime. The decades-seasoned fatalist in me cautioned that maybe things were meant to end with cruelty instead.
Of course I know the hockey gods care not for either interpretation and, in fact, do not exist except in our own impatient heads.