The Pens' overtime loss in Ottawa in Game 3 was the organization's first road OT playoff loss since Game 5 of the 2001 Eastern Semifinals against Buffalo. It was Saturday, May 5, 2001. It was a day game. We'll never forget it.

Interestingly enough, the Pens won the first two games of that series, as well, before dropping the next three, the third coming on this stab in the back from ex-Pen (and one of our favorite Pens) Stu Barnes:

There's not a lot of video evidence on the Internet of this series.

Moreover, there is scant photographic evidence on the Internet of this series, as well.

OR SO WE THOUGHT

We've uncovered a game-by-game recap of this series as told by a Sabres fan on an Angelfire page. We hope 15 years from now, someone will be as happy to stumble upon our game recaps as we are to stumble across this Angelfire page.

Here we go:

Spotted on Reddit:

Dejan was busy on the Internet Monday night, and it culminated with his latest column asking why the Pens even got Jarome Iginla. Good read.

-- Jesse from Faceoff-Factor brings it:

I don’t place a single ounce of blame for this goal on one player more than another. After repeatedly watching it, all five guys bear the burden of blame. And I can exemplify that in one simple screen cap.

-- Hooks at Pensburgh does his thing:

5 Sutter - not really his fault. Used his positioning to push them towards the wall upon entry to blue line and tried to get there to deflect the pass. Failed to do so, of all the players out there, he was the only one consistent in what he was doing, just got there a tick too slow.

-- GTOG has some thoughts:

And who replaces Crosby on the ice?  Brandon "I play like the back of a piece of sandpaper" Sutter.  Maybe Sutter is an OK defensive player and we could understand him being out there if it was for a face-off  but when you're up a man you cannot simply try to keep everything to the outside and get in shooting lanes.  YOU'RE UP A MAN.  Go get the puck.

-- Rob Rossi chimes in:

Letang and Malkin headed to the bench flashing signs of frustration. Crosby tried to boost Malkin by stick-tapping his shin guard. Veteran defenseman Brooks Orpik motioned with his hand for Letang to calm down.

Got some other stuff, including John Steigerwald making another appearance...

There is no reason not to do the same exact celebration if you do something good at work.

So running some google searches on this:

He had a knee-to-knee hit with Marty Reasoner? This explains why we saw Tanner Glass in Game 3, but is there even a injury update on Jokinen?

UPDATE

Totally forgot about this

Thanks to @TheConfluence for the reminder.

We've gotten some emails about it. Our App is out with upper and lower body injury.

Can't really find the perfect word to describe this loss.

Terrible.
Stupid.
Disappointing.
Frustrating.

It's terrible because the Pens went from being up 3 games to none to this now potentially becoming a dogfight.

It's stupid because there's no way in Hell you can let a team score a shorthanded goal late to tie it in the final minute, even with the goalie pulled to make it a 5-on-5.

It's disappointing because everyone thought the Isles series was a reminder to the Pens to never let their foot off the gas.

And it's frustrating because Craig Anderson stole this game. Alfreddson's tying goal with under 30 seconds remaining will justifiably be the talk of the town for the next couple days, but the Pens had a total of 87 minutes and 39 seconds to get another one past Anderson, and they just couldn't do it. For a team that has scored 3 or more goals in every game this post-season, they needed that one extra goal somewhere, somehow, and couldn't find it. It's up to the elite set of forwards to find the net one more time. It's been a part of the Pens' recipe for success all season, and when you're missing an ingredient, your dish is gonna taste like shit.

It wasn't for lack of trying; Craig Anderson was just lights-out. This was a goaltending duel the whole way through, with Vokoun showing that he's still nowhere near ready to give the net back to Marc-Andre Fleury. And that's the best takeaway from this game. Vokoun did everything you could ask of him.

Game 4 isn't until Wednesday night, but there's no soul-searching to be done. The Pens played arguably their best game of the playoffs. If Letang is a couple feet to his left and the pass to Alfredsson is deflected away, then everyone is snapping each other in the ass with wet towels until the Conference Finals.

The narrative for this game on the day after is Craig Anderson eliminating the Pens' offense. Hopefully the term "Halak'd" doesn't become a thing. The narrative for this game if the Pens lose this series, however... Yikes.

Recap: