I had a lot of decisions to make.  The first was the jersey to wear.  None of them had been especially lucky for me with the exception of the Mike Rathje game-worn sweater that beat Calgary in game 7 and pushed the Sharks in to round 2 against Dallas.  Next up in the closet was the autographed Jeff Freisen replica, my first Sharks jersey purchase.  It had a fairly good record this season so I went with it.

The biggest decision was the hat.  A couple of years ago I wore the St. Louis Blues hat that my nephew gave me and it had a phenomenal record.  Recently however, it’s win percentage was little better than 50-50.  I could wear my Colorado Avalanche hat, but the Avalanche just got spanked by Detroit and I didn’t want to bring any of that bad mojo to the game.  I briefly considered wearing my old Sharks hat loaded with season ticket holder pins, but it hasn’t been worn this season so I’d be taking a real risk.  I finally decided upon the new hat we received for attending the season ticket holder private practice this year.  Its record was pretty good and it should still have some wins left in it.

I arrived at The Tank at about 6:35 to meet my friend Smiley and gave him his ticket.  “If these clowns don’t win tonight, they just wasted my 100 bucks for nothing,” I told him.  I was not optimistic.  Optimists might be happier, but pessimists are more often right.

When we got inside I told Smiley that I needed to buy some peanuts.  Eating dinner at the arena doesn’t usually affect the outcome of the game, but when I buy peanuts the Sharks have a pretty good winning percentage.  “I don’t care if you have to eat two pizzas, some hot dogs, and those crappy ribs they serve here.  Do you what you need to do.”

The Sharks started out the first period pretty well but came away empty.  The second period was Dallas.  Up 2-zip with an additional two goals disallowed?  I didn’t get to see the close ups / slow motion replays so I couldn’t tell if I agreed with the decision, but during the post game show both the Sharks announcers (replayed from game commentary) and the XM guys said that they thought at least one of those goals was good.  Still, the Sharks had 20 minutes to score 3 goals.  Two wasn’t enough for me; the Sharks have lost 2 games in OT to the Stars already this series and overtime would almost assuredly go to Dallas.  I began to wonder who a good replacement coach would be.

Then the Sharks seemed to find another gear.  Milan Michalek scored.  I wasn’t convinced that this was a real comeback.  Dallas is just too good and there was only 15 minutes or so left in the game.  I clapped but didn’t bother to stand and cheer. 

Defenseman Christian Ehrhoff started becoming really dangerous to his own team.  If the wrong decision could be made, he made it.  This is how the game will end, I thought.  Ehrhoff will give it to Dallas.

Brian Campbell received a beautiful pass from JR, swooped in, and suddenly the game was tied.  Was that optimism creeping back?  The Sharks found an even higher gear and hit everything that moved.  The Stars were back on their heals but the winning goal was yet to come.  The horn sounded and the zambonis came out to prepare the ice for sudden death overtime.  I wondered if Dallas was going to win quickly or if I was in for a long night.  Smiley left his seat and I cleared out some email.

Smiley returned, carrying two chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches.  Yes, he was pulling out all of the good luck stops.  Those ice cream sandwich cookies have about 3,000,000 calories but I had to take one for the team.  I ate it, hoping that my sacrifice would be enough to do what the Sharks hadn’t been able to accomplish so far this series:  win in OT against the Dallas Stars.

The ice cream sandwich cookies did the trick.  The Sharks came out flying and Joe Pavelski popped in the winning goal less than two minutes later to send the series back to Texas for game six.

I know the team had a part to play in this victory, but the deciding factor was me pulling out all the stops, wearing lucky gear and eating lucky food.

I’m still not optimistic that the Sharks can overcome that three games to none deficit (it’s only been done twice in the NHL, the last time 33 years ago) but I would like to see another game 7 here in San Jose.

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