FEATURE: Marchant's memories from magical series vs. Dallas

EDMONTON, AB - Todd Marchant's first pick to be in alone on the goalie with the game on the line would not have been Todd Marchant.
"It's no big secret I was never very good on breakaways," said the NHL alumnus of 1,195 career regular season games and 95 more in the playoffs with the New York Rangers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Anaheim Ducks and, of course, Edmonton Oilers.
"Who, of all people, to get a breakaway in Game 7 overtime but me?"
Marchant's career success rate in one-on-one showdowns with opposing netminders may not have been great, but that didn't matter on April 29, 1997, at Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas.
The Oilers and Stars had battled their way to a winner-take-all seventh game in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and 60 minutes was not enough to determine which team would advance as the score was 3-3 at the end of regulation.
Finally, with seven and a half minutes to go in the first sudden-death period, the 23-year-old Marchant received a neutral zone pass from Doug Weight, exploded past defenceman Grant Ledyard, burst in alone on Andy Moog and rifled a wrist shot into the twine to usher in a new era of Oilers hockey.

"I could have that same breakaway 10 more times and I probably don't score," laughed Marchant, now 46, reflecting on the memorable goal 23 years later over the phone from Orange County where he's currently in isolation with his family. "But the one time I did, it went in."
The young, scrappy, seventh-seeded underdog group from Edmonton had eliminated a veteran-laden Dallas squad that had just won the Central Division title with authority. Their 104 points were 10 more than the Detroit Red Wings in second place and 13 more than the Oilers, who had just one win in their final six regular season games.
Limping into the playoffs didn't matter for Edmonton, though. They made it for the first time since 1991-92 and that's all that mattered. They knew post-season hockey was a clean slate and an opportunity to be giant killers.
"Most of us had no playoff experience or very little playoff experience," said Marchant, who was part of the new, post-dynasty Oilers core that included the likes of Weight, Ryan Smyth, Jason Arnott, Mariusz Czerkawski, Mike Grier, Boris Mironov, Rem Murray and Dean McAmmond, who were all 25 or younger.
"We got into the playoffs and we were excited about that, but we were the young, inexperience kids and they were the grizzled veteran team."

The Stars were led by future Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Mike Modano, Joe Nieuwendyk, Sergei Zubov and Guy Carbonneau, in addition to other iconic players like Jere Lehtinen, Pat Verbeek, Darryl Sydor and Derian Hatcher, with former Oilers Cup champion Moog between the pipes.
Marchant and the Oilers knew they couldn't match Dallas' star power, but Head Coach Ron Low laid out an aggressive plan of attack for his team heading into the series.
"Our goal was to get 100 hits every game," Marchant said. "It was very simple, out-hit them was what we wanted to do. We knew we weren't going to be able to go toe-to-toe with that team skill-wise. They were a better team on paper, but we knew if we continued to go out there and skate and hit, we had the potential of wearing them down."
The Oilers, who lost all four meetings with the Stars during the regular season by a combined score of 18-6, were bested again in Game 1 of the series 5-3, despite an opening shorthanded marker by Marchant.
The eventual unofficial MVP of the series showed up in a massive way in Game 2, however, as Oilers netminder Curtis Joseph stopped all 25 shots he faced, while Weight and Smyth each had two points, as the Oilers won 4-0 and took a split back to Edmonton for Game 3.
As legendary as Game 7 would turn out to be, Game 3 at the Edmonton Coliseum may have been the most epic matchup of the series. The Oilers trailed 3-0 with less than five minutes to go in the third period before Weight, Andrei Kovalenko and Grier each scored within a span of 1:56 before Captain Kelly Buchberger notched the first of three Oilers OT winners in the series.

Two nights later, the Stars stayed poised and collected a 4-3 win of their own to send the series back to the Lone Star State tied 2-2. The best-of-seven was now a best-of-three.
"It was such a battle of a series," Marchant recalled. "It was barbaric at times, the way the two teams played... You genuinely develop a hate for the other team, and I think that both teams, as the series went on, hated each other."
More flawless goaltending from CuJo and overtime heroics were on the docket for the Oilers in Game 5, as Joseph made 43 saves and Smyth scored just 22 seconds into sudden death for a 1-0 shutout victory and a chance to elminate the Stars back in Edmonton.
The teams traded tallies for 40 minutes in Game 6 before Modano scored his fourth goal of the series in the final frame to keep Dallas alive with a 3-2 win, setting the stage for the do-or-die Game 7 at Reunion Arena.
Benoit Hogue gave the Stars a quick 1-0 lead just 1:38 into Game 7, but Murray replied for the Oilers just seven seconds later and the teams were even 1-1 through 20 minutes.
Mironov's power-play marker put the Oilers up 2-1 in the middle frame, but goals from Bob Bassen and Verbeek gave the home side a 3-2 edge with six and a half minutes remaining in the period.
Marchant's first heroic play of the night came in the waning moments of the second period as he used his blazing speed to beat Hatcher to a loose puck in the neutral zone before setting up Kovalenko on a two-on-one rush for the equalizer with just 20 seconds left on the clock.

"I was never one to shoot the puck on a two-on-one, and he always had a really good one-timer on his off-side," Marchant said of his stocky Russian linemate. "It was in the back of the net before you know it. That was another huge moment for our young group to be able to go into the third period of a Game 7 tied up. That was a big goal for us."
Not wanting to surrender what could end up being the series-deciding goal, both teams locked it down defensively in the third period, leading to sudden death for the third time in nine days.
The Stars generated the majority of the scoring chances in the overtime period, with CuJo making save after save to keep the Oilers alive. Joseph kept his best for last, though, with eight minutes on the clock.
Sydor circled behind the net and wrapped the puck around, forcing Joseph to make an initial stop. Nieuwendyk was parked in front of the net and pounced on the rebound, smacking a desperation forehand shot towards what he thought was an open cage. At the last possible second, Joseph dove across his crease and caught the puck backhand with his glove.

"We switched ends for the first overtime, so our net was so far at the other end that we couldn't really see the play happen from the bench," Marchant said. "You watch it on the highlights after and you're like, 'Are you kidding me?' You knew it was meant to be."
On the very next shift, Joseph made one more save on Sydor for good measure, leading to Weight collecting the puck in the Edmonton zone, skating to his own blueline and sliding the crisp pass to Marchant for the series winner.
"I just put my head down and started skating as fast as I could," Marchant said. "If I actually thought about what I was going to do, I probably wouldn't have scored, but I managed to put it just over the blocker on Andy Moog."
The Oilers had another powerhouse squad waiting for them in the second round in the Colorado Avalanche, with the likes of Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg and Claude Lemieux in their lineup, as well as Patrick Roy in net.
Edmonton managed to win Game 3 on home ice, but it was all Avalanche the rest of the series as they advanced 4-1 before bowing out in the Western Conference Final to the eventual Cup champion Red Wings.
Marchant and company didn't dwell on the second-round exit, though. They knew they had achieved something special by eliminating Dallas.
"We were so stunned, just shocked that we beat this team," he said. "I've gone back a few times and looked at their roster on paper. It was massive the amount of star power and veteran guys they had on that team. Our team on paper wasn't anywhere near theirs, but that's why you play the games."

The 1997 performance set the stage for a decade of underdog Oilers teams scratching and clawing their way into the playoffs, including another upset in 1998 when they got revenge on Colorado with another seventh-seed-over-second-seed victory that saw them fall behind 3-1 in the series before rattling off three straight wins.
From 1997 on, the Oilers made the playoffs seven of nine seasons, culminating in the 2006 run all the way to the Stanley Cup Final that included a Western Conference Final win over Marchant's new team in Anaheim.
"I feel very proud to have been a part of those teams in the late 90s and early 2000s," he said. "The Oilers of the 80s were such a dynasty, but we didn't have a Wayne Gretzky or a Mark Messier on our team. We didn't have the star power they had when they won all those Cups, but we were a team that was leading by example and exemplifying hard work."
Marchant draws on those memories and lessons learned from the first part of his career in his current role as Director of Player Development with the Ducks, looking back fondly on the era that inspired a new generation of Oilers fans.
"It was a great time to be an Oiler."