Recalling Primeau's memorable goal in Flyers' win over Penguins in five overtimes

In real time, it lasted 6 hours, 56 minutes. In game time, they played 152 minutes, 1 second. The first puck dropped a little after 7:30 p.m. and the final horn sounded just after 2:30 a.m. Four overtimes weren't enough.

Renowned Penguins agitator Matthew Barnaby said he was so tired he didn't even have the energy to yap. Flyers defenseman Eric Desjardins was so depleted he lost his lunch. Even the referees were victimized by the seemingly endless marathon - and at the hands of one of their colleagues, no less.

The game started on May 4 in Mellon Arena and ended on May 5. The goaltenders saw 130 shots and stopped 127. The Flyers' Luke Richardson played nearly 60 minutes. Fellow defenseman Dan McGillis played more than 61.

It ended in the fifth overtime when Flyers center Keith Primeau fired a laser over the shoulder of Penguins goaltender Ron Tugnutt. It was Primeau's only shot of the entire, 92-plus minutes of overtime. Primeau scored 284 goals in his NHL career, none more historic than that one.

"It's the most memorable," Primeau said. "I think I understood the enormity of the goal and how it might [be remembered] in future years. It's definitely one I will always look back on with fond memories."

Referee Dan Marouelli had the best view of Primeau's shot and was the first to witness it going in.

"I've worked many overtimes," said Marouelli, who also was on the ice for a 1996 Penguins-Capitals game that ended with 45 seconds left in the fourth overtime. "You'd like the goal to be quick and, more importantly, clean, so there's no controversy. It wasn't quick, but it was clean."

Giddy was up

By the end of each passing intermission, players and officials wandered back to their locker rooms wondering if the night would ever end.

Primeau described the Flyers as giddy.

"The mood in the locker room between periods was actually pretty jovial," he said. "That group of guys was a pretty loose bunch. We had [Rick] Tocchet, [Keith] Jones, [Craig] Berube and [Chris] Therien; there wasn't a whole lot of seriousness around that group. We were very focused on the task, but those guys also knew how to keep a room loose and that's how we approached that long game."

With exhaustion comes hunger. There was a very real problem developing as the night dragged on. Ever try to get a pizza delivered in the middle of the night on a Thursday? The fight for sustenance reached unfortunate depths, Marouelli remembered.

"Tim Nowak was the standby [official] and was in charge of getting the pizza" he said, laughing. "The son of a gun ate half the pizza. He must have gotten hungry in the overtime, because he got into the pizza."

Primeau played 45 minutes, 33 seconds and said his average shift in the late overtimes was about 25 to 30 seconds.

"We had power bars and Gatorade, but we ran out of those items," he said. "Guys were looking for popcorn, hot dogs, pizza. Whatever you could do to get something into your stomach. At that point, there was no sweat left. You stopped sweating because there was no more fluids in your body."

On the flight back to Philadelphia, Primeau recalled, "Eric Desjardins was dry-heaving on the way home, he was so exhausted."

Changed complexion

Their fourth postseason meeting begins tomorrow.

Pens coach Herb Brooks, who guided the U.S. Olympic team to a miraculous gold medal in 1980, said he slept like a baby the night after the five-overtime game.

"I'd sleep for an hour, then I'd cry for an hour," he said with a sigh.

Flyers rookie goaltender Brian Boucher had the playoff season of his life. He stopped 57 of the Penguins' 58 shots, letting only an Alex Kovalev tally get past him very early in the first period. Boucher was flawless the final 149 minutes, 39 seconds.

"It seemed like the game slowed down," Boucher said. "I mean, I guess it had to, after a while. And the puck - it just got so big, bigger and bigger. It felt like it was never going to end."

Boucher called Primeau's goal a thing of beauty.

"I think that's the only way either team was going to win - sneaking something under the bar. Neither me nor Tugnutt was going to let anything easy or cheap through. They say overtime goals, in games that long, are usually ugly goals. That wasn't an ugly goal."

Boucher, who registered all 11 of his career playoff wins in 2000, spent the latter part of this season as a backup in San Jose.

The Sharks' season came to an abrupt end on Sunday when Dallas clinched the series with a four-overtime victory in Game 6. Coincidentally, it also was the eighth anniversary of the Primeau game and the flashbacks were numerous. Only this time, Boucher was on the bench supporting starter Evgeni Nabokov as best as he could.

"You can't prepare for something like that," said Boucher, 31. "I mean, you tell a guy before a game that he's going to play eight periods, he's never going to believe you."

Primeau retired from the NHL in 2006 and now spends most of his time coaching youth hockey in South Jersey. The former Flyers captain will guide four teams next season and said he spends way more time at the rink now than he ever did as a player.

The kids will learn a lot of things from the former NHL All-Star, not the least of which is having confidence when the spotlight is hottest.

"I remember sitting on the bench in overtime and having a really good feeling," he reminisced. "I was thinking if 'Bouche' could just keep stopping the puck, I'm going to score here. You don't always get that feeling. But I just had that feeling that as long as they don't score, I'm going to. I never expected it to be five periods, though." *

Daily News sports writer Marcus Hayes contributed to this report.

Comcast SportsNet will air abbreviated rebroadcasts of the Flyers-Penguins five-overtime game tomorrow at 3 p.m. and Saturday at 4 p.m.