Great Oilers Moment #9

9. Todd Marchant Eliminates the Stars

I know that some fans have grown to hate Todd Marchant because of the Oilers’ recent series with the Ducks, but I just have to say that those fans are retarded. Todd deserves a pass because of his (relatively) recent contribution to Oilers history.

1997 saw the return of the Oilers to the post-season after missing the playoffs in each of the previous four seasons. As such, the expectations were fairly low, but the team featured rising stars such as Doug Weight, Curtis Joseph and Ryan Smyth. In a way, this was also the ownership’s last gasp at glory before things really started to come unglued for him.

One of the best moments of that series happened in Game 3. Down 3-0 with about 4 minutes left to play, the Oilers somehow tied it up to send it to overtime and Kelly Buchberger scored the game winner. Most of the fans had already left by that time, and when they heard what was going on, they turned their cars around and headed back to Skyreach. The series would end up going to Game 7 in Dallas. The game was tied 3-3 after 60 minutes. In overtime, Joe Nieuwendyk was robbed by Curtis Joseph, even though he was badly out of position. A few shifts later, Todd Marchant took a pass from Doug Weight and beat former Oilers goalie Andy Moog over his shoulder, signalling to the Edmonton fans that the dark days were over and kickstarting a new heated rivalry with the Dallas Stars. This would turn out to be a very significant contribution to history, as the Oilers would meet the Stars five more times in the playoffs, and would lose to them each time.

The Oilers would go on to the second round only to lose in 5 games to the Colorado Avalanche.