I am sitting here with Greg Mann right now and we are basking in our own glory; we are on top of the world. That’s right, you guessed it, we did indeed win the Summit Series on NHL 2000 on the Sony Playstation. Let me tell you it was not easy, even painful at times. It turned out to be a seven-game war.
The tenacious Russians would not quit. We took the first game in overtime 4–3. The Russians then came back with a vengeance, embarrassing us on our home turf 5–1. Greg and I at this point became very upset and concerned. We didn’t know if we could do it, but we gave each other a pep talk and we got ready for game three in Russia.
We won that game 4–1, and we were feeling very good about ourselves. Then disaster struck: Patrick Roy was in a slump and we took one on the chin in overtime. We bounced back in game five, though, with an impressive 3–2 victory. One more win over those pesky Russians and the Summit would be ours.
We headed back to Russia for game six and let me tell you the jet lag was setting in. Despite a valiant effort, we lost 3–1.
It was now do-or-die in game seven, and we were heading back home to the friendly Canadian crowds. I have to admit I had my doubts heading into this game, but we had come too far, and we had trained too damned hard to let this summit series slip away.
As soon as the referee dropped the puck to start the game I felt something magical in the air. I knew and Greg knew we were going to win. We came out rockin’ led by a goal by Joe Sakic. Adam Graves added to our lead, then Raymond Bourque with one of his patented howitzers. We were up 3–0, and we were getting very arrogant when the Russians decided to make a comeback. Suddenly it was 3–2, and Greg and myself could feel the childhood dream slipping away. But everyone knows Canadians don’t quit, and Rod Brind’amour put one home and we knew the game was ours! The final score was 4–3.
We did it–we accomplished something that most people can only dream of; we won the Summit Series on NHL 2000 on the Sony Playstation, and nobody can ever take that away from us.
So next time you see Greg or myself, if we seem awfully happy, you now know why.
It’s not over, though. We have a new and perhaps more difficult task at hand: The North America Cup against team U.S.A. The Playstation gives them a rating of 94, 8 more than team Russia. We lost the last North America Cup 4–2, and we’re looking for revenge.