The packed Capital Centre crowd must have figured that the game would end in the second overtime because the back-and-forth action was fierce. "The Law of Averages says it's gotta end before a third OT," said one press box wag.
"Actually, the second overtime was played faster than the second period of regulation," said Caps forward Lou Franceschetti. "We just wanted to get pucks to the net and some bodies in front. Then, see what happens."
What happened was that both Kelly Hrudey at one end and Bob Mason at the other seemed to have put up an invisible four-foot-by-six-foot "wall" along the goal line.
In any event nobody scored in the second sudden-death period which led to some desperate measures by desperate players during the intermission riff.
Eureka! The Isles young forward Mikko Makela and teammate Pat LaFontaine collaborated on a brainstorm. They decided to ask the enemy training staff for oxygen.
"We never thought they'd come through," Makela recalled, "but we actually got it from the Caps staff. Believe me, Washington management wasn't happy about that when they found out."
Despite the four minor penalties and one misconduct penalty doled out by referee Andy Van Hellemond in the second overtime period, the warriors stuck strictly to hockey. Van Hellemond, who skated non-stop, also was feeling beat.
So were his linesmen, John D'Amico and Ron Finn. When back-up referee Kerry Fraser walked into the officials' room after the second OT period, he was awed by their deteriorating physical state.
Fraser: "They were dehydrated, hungry and exhausted. D'Amico was lying on the floor with his legs up on a bench because his feet hurt so bad. Finn was looking disheveled and frazzled."