In this difficult time of a health crisis, the matter of sports competition that brings so much recreational joy to millions of Americans has been rightfully postponed.

Every level from the professional and college ranks down to high school spring sports will have empty stadiums, ball fields, and running tracks for the foreseeable future.

If you’re a sports fan like me, the games may not be live for a while, but from many years of devotion to athletic competition, some of the greatest events continue to play on in my memory rewind.

So sit back and let me distract you from public concerns for just a moment with Part Four of a series of the greatest games and events that will remain forever in my personal Hall of Fame.

When you speak of hockey to many Americans born after 1970, they will recall the “Miracle on Ice,” when the US amateur team defeated the heavily-favored Soviet Union team in the 1980 Olympics. That game meant much more to Americans than a hockey victory. It was the USA “Davids” beating the Soviet “Goliaths.” The free and the brave overcame the hammer and sickle.

In my opinion, the very best athletes in the world are professional ice hockey players. A 60-minute physical battle played on skates with swinging sticks and frozen pucks, hockey is the fastest team sport that often results in bloody gashes and broken teeth. When wounded, many of these tough guys go in for “repairs” and come back to play in the same game.

Here are my three choices for the best of the best in the NHL post season, which today has a survival of the fittest format during which a team must win 16 total times and might have to play as many as 28 games - four best of seven series - to do it.

Detroit Red Wings vs Montreal Canadiens

1954 Stanley Cup final

A Game 7 sudden death overtime is very intense, but when that happened for the only time in a Stanley Cup final, the tension was heart wrenching.

The Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Canadiens were the best teams in the league in the 1950s. The two teams combined to win 9 out of 10 Stanley Cups in the decade, but the 1954 classic between them was the most memorable.

Detroit had held a 3-1 series lead, but Montreal rallied back to tie the series on a 1-0 overtime victory in Game 6.

Game 7 was played in Detroit. After the Wings fell behind, 1-0, Red Kelly tied the contest with a second-period goal. The score remained tied as regulation time expired. It was now sudden death for the Stanley Cup.

The climax of the championship began a little more than four minutes into overtime. Detroit’s Metro Prystai passed deep out of his own zone to Glen Skov, who sailed down the left side, across the Montreal blueline. He banged the puck off the boards behind the net and it bounced out to Tony Leswick, nicknamed “Mighty Mouse” because he was only 5’5” and weighed 160 pounds.

Leswick was nearly at center ice when he lifted a lazy shot toward the Montreal goal. Just as he skated to the bench for a line change, Montreal’s Doug Harvey swiped at the puck with his glove in an attempt to knock it to the ice, but instead he hit it over the shoulder of his own goalie Gerry McNeil and into the net.

Leswick never saw it go in, but the Wings were Stanley Cup champs.

New Jersey Devils vs New York Rangers

1994 Eastern Conference Finals

I’m a big Devils’ fan and whenever they play the Rangers, it’s Army vs Navy, Red Sox vs Yankees or Duke vs North Carolina on ice. Game 7 of the conference final was played in May at Madison Square Garden after the Rangers beat the Devils, 4-2, in Game 6 to tie the series.

In the first period, New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur and New York’s goalie Pat Richter both made outstanding saves to keep the game scoreless. In the second, Rangers defenseman, Brian Leetch took a pass, made a spin-o-rama move and beat Brodeur on his glove side for a 1-0 NY lead. Richter stopped the Devils’ Claude Lemieux on a breakaway near the end of the period to preserve his team’s slim advantage.

In the third period with the score still at 1-0, New Jersey pulled its goaltender with under a minute to go. With seven seconds left in the game, The Devils’ Valerie Zelepukin jammed the puck from under Richter’s sprawled body across the goal line, and the controversial score sent the game into overtime.

In OT, Stefan Matteau beat Brodeur on a wraparound to send the Rangers on to win their first Stanley Cup in 54 years. I still can hear the announcer shouting, “Matteau! Matteau!” that sent my team to defeat. The Devils would come back in 1995 to win their first of three Cups.

New York Islanders vs Washington Capitals

1987 Division Semifinals

This “Easter Epic” game wasn’t decided until the fourth overtime, making it the longest game in NHL Stanley Cup Playoff history.

The first period was dominated by the Capitals, but the game was scoreless through 19 minutes, when Mike Gartner beat Islander goaltender Kelly Hrudey to give the Capitals a 1-0 lead after one period. Patrick Flatley tied the score midway through the second period, but Grant Martin responded for the Capitals, and after two periods Washington led, 2–1.

The game remained 2–1 through most of the third period, thanks to the strong netminding efforts of Hrudey and the Caps’ Bob Mason. Then, with just over five minutes remaining in regulation, the Islanders’ Bryan Trottier backhanded a shot between Mason’s pads.

A frantic final minute of scoring attempts from both teams produced no further scoring, and the game went into sudden death overtime. Little did anyone know that this contest hadn’t even reached its halfway point.

In the first overtime, many scoring chances were thwarted by Mason and Hrudey, and the game remained tied. As the game moved on into the second overtime, the players began to show fatigue. Short bursts of action were replaced by longer periods of slow play. Hrudey continued to shine, though, stopping 17 shots in the second overtime session alone.

The scoreless third overtime set-up the first quadruple-overtime in 36 years. With both teams tired, play was choppy through the first eight minutes of what was their seventh period of hockey. The Capitals had managed only one shot to the Islanders’ five. Finally, with eight minutes elapsed in the seventh period, Ken Leiter of the Islanders carried the puck into the Capitals’ zone and sent a pass through the slot. Gordy Dineen pinched in and carried the puck around the net for a shot which was blocked out to near the blueline. The deflection bounced to Islander star Pat La Fontaine. He spun and launched a slap shot toward the net. Mason, screened on the play, never saw the puck as it clanged off the post to his left and into the net for the game-winner. The then-fifth-longest game in NHL history – and longest since 1943 – was over after nearly 69 total minutes of overtime.

Final Thoughts

I’m a bit surprised that hockey isn’t more popular in the United States. The NHL has the best of sports’ traditions. The Stanley Cup, made of silver and nickel alloy, is by far the cheapest of the major sports’ championship trophies, but it is arguably the most coveted - and the only one to include all of the winning players’ names on it. It is awarded by two men dressed in tuxedos who carry the Cup with white gloves onto the ice while walking on a red carpet.

A cool benefit that comes with winning the Cup is that each winning player gets to take it home with him during the off season for at least a day.

Perhaps the most impressive tradition in playoff hockey is when both teams line up after a grueling physical series and shake hands at center ice in a token of good sportsmanship. As difficult as it must be for the losing team, they appear to be very genuine in congratulating the winners. NHL hockey is a blood and guts battle, played by two teams with respect for the game, and ultimately respect for each other, after the final horn has sounded.