Players ate pizza and lost weight.
Two Flyers had a marathon at the movies the day before the marathon on the ice.
And Keith Primeau was the one to end the game that felt like it would never end. He buried the winning goal to give the Flyers a 2-1 five-overtime victory over the Penguins in Game 4 of the 2000 Eastern Conference semifinals.
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SIGN UP HERE He still remembers that night (and morning) fondly 25 years later. Sunday will mark the 25th anniversary of that historic and draining playoff win.
"In the moment, it was a great feeling, we were five extra periods in and it was 2:30 a.m., guys were just really excited for it to be over," Primeau said in an interview with Ashlyn Sullivan on SportsNet Central. "But I knew pretty quickly, especially as sports-crazy as this town is, that it would take on a life of its own. And it certainly has."
The Flyers did anything they could to keep their energy at each intermission.
"By the time we came in at the end of the fourth overtime, guys were going in for the coaches' popcorn," Primeau said. "It wasn't going to really refuel guys very much, but guys were just so hungry."
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The Flyers went on to win the series in six games after dropping the first two games. They lost the Eastern Conference Final in seven games to the Devils, but that never seemed to take away from the memories of the five-overtime thriller against the Penguins.
"We had a cast of characters," Primeau said. "We certainly weren't as talented as Pittsburgh was, our locker room was full of guys that were lunch-pail, hard-hat kind of guys, but also just loved being around the rink and were good team guys."
You can relive the five-overtime victory in the video above. NBC Sports Philadelphia will have more Flyers flashbacks coming up on SportsNet Central, which airs from 6-10 a.m. every weekday.