The Dawning Of a New Ice Age

One of the game's sages mentioned that Penguins fans used to outdraw Capitals fans in Washington during Mario Lemieux's best days. As their team rallied from 4-0 down to tie the game, Penguins fans were louder and more exuberant than the home crowd.

When Evgeni Malkin, another one of those 20-year-old, From-Russia-With-Flare phenoms, scored as he was falling down near the start of the third period, the building exploded. Anyone at the concession stand would have thought the Capitals scored.

Ovechkin and Crosby were good; they combined for three assists and a goal in regulation. But Malkin was better, faking out Kolzig, making the veteran commit to a place the puck would not be shot, and scoring the winning shootout goal. Watching him, Sergei Gonchar, Ovechkin and Alexander Semin trade pleasantries in Russian afterward in a corridor outside the locker room was watching four-fifths of Russia's Olympic power play.

Crosby said afterward that he didn't believe he and Ovechkin had to rescue the league or their franchises. "I think there are other players than me and Alex who are going to help," he said. "There's a guy next to me who brings a lot of excitement." He was talking about Malkin.

Either way, none of the youngsters disappointed his hurting sport.

The loss of a season to labor strife two years ago is often blamed for hockey falling into the public-consumption abyss. Never mind NASCAR ratings burying the NHL; poker became a hotter television property before the lockout.

But the real reason hockey could not connect outside its knowing and loyal fan base was the lack of genuine star power. In the NBA, Michael Jordan seamlessly filled the void left by the retirements of Magic and Bird. The six-year gap between Gretzky and Lemieux and players of Ovechkin and Crosby's stature was too great. Gretzky retired in 1999 and Lemieux was no longer Lemieux by the new millennium. In between, there were few dynamos to wow a fading audience.

Steve Yzerman was at the end in Detroit, Mark Messier's granite jaw could still draw but his body was betraying him. Calgary's Jarome Iginla was like a lot of exciting, young NHL players: too green and not quite exhilarating enough to pick up the torch. Carolina and Tampa Bay winning Stanley Cups was nice for those franchises, but not so much for most of North America. Montreal is the last Canadian team to win the Cup, and that was 13 years ago.

Alex the Great and Sid the Kid have basically been entrusted with taking away the financial and marketing sins of all the adults who messed up the sport, the people who absolutely see Ovechkin and Crosby as their last hopes for an NHL rebirth.

Bringing their teams along for the ride last night, they lived up to their billing. In a memorable comeback by Pittsburgh capped by the shootout, they kept the faith of Hockey World -- the people happy to live vicariously through them.