Installment No. 8 in an occasional series highlighting the most memorable game in which players participated as a member of the Penguins.
Player: Eddie Olczyk
Date: April 23, 1997
Game: Game 4 in first-round playoff series against Philadelphia
Site: Civic Arena
Result: Penguins, 4-1
Three stars: 1) Penguins C Mario Lemieux. 2) Penguins G Ken Wregget. 3) Penguins D Ian Moran.
Olczyk knew, even as the game was unfolding, that he was part of something special.
It's just that it took about 3 1/2 years, at which point the Penguins' only victory in the spring of 1997 became the front bookend of an improbable story, for him to appreciate how truly extraordinary it was.
The game was Lemieux's final one at home during the first phase of his career, an event he punctuated by beating Flyers goalie Garth Snow with 64 seconds left in regulation to give the Penguins their margin of victory.
Although Olczyk actually scored the game-winning goal that night (shorthanded, no less), that's not why the game stands out to him. Never even came up during a discussion of the evening.
Instead, he focused on Lemieux and how, with Philadelphia holding a 3-0 lead in the series and a clear edge in personnel, there was a pretty good chance he was performing for the home crowd for the final time.
"You saw how he was fighting through with the back (problems)," Olczyk said. "You felt like it was the end of an iconic athlete and person. It was very emotional. It was hard to believe.
"There was a wide range of emotions. You have a great guy, and obviously one of the greatest players ever and it looks like it's done. His career is over. Knowing all the work he did to try to play ... 50 percent of Mario is probably better than 98 percent of the players who ever played in the league. That's just the reality of it. It looked like it was over."
And so it was, when the series ended three nights later at the arena then known as the CoreStates Center in Philadelphia.
Lemieux scored on Snow again in that one, too, and assisted on a Kevin Hatcher goal, but could not save his team from a season-ending 6-3 defeat.
The Flyers paid him a stunning, but fitting, tribute by naming Lemieux the only star of the game, after which he eased into retirement.
Lemieux stayed there until Dec. 27, 2000, when he put the second bookend in place by reviving his playing career in a 5-0 victory against Toronto at Mellon Arena. (Yes, there had been a name change since his previous appearance there.)
His dramatic return to active duty played out before a rapturous crowd, national TV audiences in the U.S. and Canada -- and a former teammate and close friend, Olczyk, who by then was working alongside Mike Lange on Penguins telecasts.
"It was a story in the making, and I just happened to be there," Olczyk said. "First as a player, then as a broadcaster. I'd be hard-pressed to say that (Toronto game) wasn't as great a moment to be a part of, even from the broadcast booth."
Olczyk, and everyone else in attendance, got to watch Lemieux put on quite a show.
It took him all of 33 seconds to assist on a Jaromir Jagr goal, and he then converted a Jagr feed midway through the second period, about four minutes before setting up a Jan Hrdina goal.
"Thirty-three seconds in, he makes the play behind the net," Olczyk said. "He gets the puck on his stick and you could just feel the anticipation, that something was going to happen. Mikey lost it on the air and I'm shaking my head like, 'How does he do it?'
"Then he scores on that one-timer from (Jagr) in the second period. He one-times the puck to the back of the net, then he sets up Hrdina after (Jagr) steals it."
Lemieux would finish his first game back with one goal, two assists and recognition as the game's No. 1 star. (In a neat twist, Snow was with the Penguins by then, and was honored as the No. 3 star.)
"You go from being disappointed and sad and all of a sudden, he's back three years later and it doesn't look like he missed a beat," Olczyk said. "The story ended way better than it did initially because of the comeback and how well that game went."
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