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Dan Barnes: Some Oiler OT heroes defined by goals they score

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He won a Stanley Cup, played 1,195 regular season games and 95 more in the playoffs for four NHL teams, and still, Todd Marchant’s career is defined by one play.

One shot.

One frozen moment.

In Edmonton, anyway. In Anaheim, where he drank from the Cup in 2007 and still works as director of player development for the Ducks, the perception of Marchant is different.

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But in Edmonton, he is the Oiler who put away the favoured Dallas Stars in overtime in Game 7 on April 29, 1997. Such is the lasting power of overtime and Game 7 combined.

“At least you’re remembered for something,” Marchant said Friday. “I played almost 700 games for the Oilers. But it’s a moment you’ll never forget as long as you live. If somebody recognizes me or I’m in Edmonton, they say I remember where I was when you scored that goal.”

Some Oiler fans might well remember, decades from now, where they were when David Desharnais scored the first Oiler OT goal in 11 years.

It has been 20 years since Marchant did his thing. He was 23 then, just barely starting out on his NHL journey. That first-round series was packed with drama, the underdog Oilers rising up every other game to win in extra time. Kelly Buchberger scored at 9:15 of OT in Game 3. Ryan Smyth scored at 22 seconds of double OT in Game 5. And Marchant capped it with a goal, heck, THE GOAL, at 12:26 of OT in Game 7.

It was blistering hot in Dallas. Reunion Arena was a blast furnace. And the series had been a bruiser.

“Our game plan was to punish Dallas,” said Marchant. “We tried to get 100 hits a game or something ridiculous like that.”

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Everyone was beat as Game 7 dragged on. After coincidental minors were called, the teams were playing four-on-four hockey in OT. Oiler goalie Curtis Joseph absolutely robbed Dallas sniper Joe Nieuwendyk on the doorstep, and the stage was set.

At full speed, Marchant took a pass from Doug Weight just over the Oilers blue line, Stars defenceman Grant Ledyard turned, stumbled and fell, giving Marchant a beeline to Dallas goalie Andy Moog. From perhaps five feet outside the crease, Marchant snapped the puck high far side and mayhem ensued along the boards. In the dogpile, Dan McGillis kissed Marchant on the cheek.

“He tackled me and yeah, he gave me a peck on the cheek. I’m thinking what the hell is this all about?”

It’s about relief and joy and excitement. It’s about David beaning Goliath. It’s about a long awaited return to the feeling of post-season success, which spoiled a generation of Oiler fans and players. Those Oilers had been out of the playoffs for five years, not for 11 as is the case this post-season, but all those things applied then just as they do now.

“In that city, five years was like an eternity,” Marchant said, “because they had so much success back in the ’80s. We get back in, we’re a complete underdog and we knock off the Dallas Stars.”

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Marchant was watching from his Anaheim home as Thursday night became Friday morning and David Desharnais took his place in Oiler lore, scoring the 25th playoff overtime goal in franchise history. He was the 18th Oiler player to get one.

Wayne Gretzky was in Rogers Place on Thursday, agonizing with many other Oiler fans. Fernando Pisani was there too, but said he found it exciting, not stressful. Shawn Horcoff was asleep in front of the TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where it was way too early in the morning, and he had player development work to do on Friday with Detroit Red Wings prospects.

They have all been there and done what Desharnais did for the Oilers against San Jose. Before Thursday’s heroics came about, Pisani had scored the most recent overtime goal for the franchise. He sniped a shortie at 3:31 of OT on June 14, 2006 in Raleigh, N.C. to send the Oilers and Hurricanes back to Edmonton for Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final. Search “Pisani and goal” on YouTube and up it pops. That’s pretty iconic.

“I don’t know if you’re defined by that moment but it’s your most memorable moment,” said Pisani. “For me, it was a perfect script. You couldn’t write it any better, being a kid from Edmonton, being able to score a big goal at such a key time. You lose and you’re done, your hopes and dreams are shattered.”

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Horcoff was the saviour earlier in 2006, when he scored at 2:24 of the third OT to end the third longest game in Oiler history. It started on May 10, with the Sharks up 2-0 in their second-round series. The Oilers, for all intents and purposes, would have been done had they lost Game 3. But thanks to Horcoff — who banged in a loose puck or a pass from Smyth, and it depends who you ask — at the edge of the Sharks’ crease, the game ended in the wee hours of May 11, and they were still alive.

“There’s the pressure, and the excitement continually builds and builds from one overtime to the next,” said Horcoff, who remembers it more clearly than any other goal he scored as a pro.

“And I think, in Edmonton, you’re not just talking about the people in the rink. The whole city is watching. That’s what makes it even bigger, makes it hit home even harder.”

dbarnes@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/jrnlbarnes

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