May 9, 1992: Three for Francis

PITTSBURGH, Pa. - Down 2 games to 1 in the series, down 3-1 in the game, and without their dynamic team leader - yah, things weren't looking good for the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

Trailing the New York Rangers late in the second period, the Penguins would have loved to have turned to Mario Lemieux, but he wasn't much help to them sitting in street clothes in the press box with a broken wrist, suffered just two games ago. So they turned to a different future hall-of-famer, Ron Francis, to lead them back. With five seconds left in the second period, Francis found himself in the right spot at the right time, pushing a rebound into an empty net to cut the deficit to 3-2.

In the third, the Rangers' hall-of-fame captain, Mark Messier, scored his second goal of the game to make it 4-2, but Francis answered again, this time scoring from the blue line to make it 4-3. Then a brilliant individual play from winger Jaromir Jagr led to a game-tying goal from Troy Loney, and game 4 was heading to overtime.

After Jagr drew a holding penalty, Pittsburgh had a rare overtime power play. Defenseman Larry Murphy stripped Messier of the puck right in front of the net and quickly passed to Francis, who spun and deflecte the puck past goalie Mark Richter in one motion, giving himself the hat trick and helping the Penguins tie the series.

The momentum the Penguins gained from their hard-fought win stayed with them the rest of the playoffs; they didn't lose another game, finishing on an 11-0 streak to claim their second straight Stanley Cup. The second cup was especially meaningful at the time, as the Penguins had lost their coach, Bob Johnson, to cancer earlier that year. In retrospect, it's also significant historically, as it was the last time the star-crossed Lemieux would win the Stanley Cup as a player.

After returning in time for the Finals and lifting the Cup a second time, Lemieux stepped away from the game the next year after announcing he had Hodgkins lymphoma. Between treatment for that and debilitating back injuries, Lemieux had trouble staying on the ice later in his career, denying him a chance at making a legitimate challenge to Wayne Gretzky's career scoring marks. But he stuck around long enough to win two Cups, with a big help from Francis' hat trick.