I love the walk-off home run. Who can forget Kirk Gibson's homer off Dennis Eckersley in 1988 that catapulted the Los Angeles Dodgers to the World Series championship? Remember Bobby Thomson, Joe Carter, Bill Mazeroski?

A basket at the buzzer in basketball - It is the dream of every kid on a playground court. Score to tie is great, score to win is awesome.

How about a boxer knocking out his opponent in the last round when he is behind on points, or a tennis player winning that tie-break 10-8 in the fifth set of a tennis match.

These are all great experiences and are remembered forever. But they are not the most exciting finish in sports. None can match the drama, the fear, the tension and the gut-wrenching excitement of an overtime game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Yes, hockey my friends.

It is easily the most riveting time in sports. It's do-or-die time. When the game is tied and they step on the ice for that overtime period, players must have their stomachs in gigantic knots, I know I did.

Score a goal you win, allow a goal you lose.

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Most every sport has an overtime of some sort. But they usually have limits. In basketball they play five minutes, both teams score, both teams get several chances to win. In baseball and college football both teams get a chance to score.

Imagine if Gibson hit his home run in the top of the inning. The A's would have had the bottom of the inning to tie.

In playoff hockey there are no second chances. There are no set times for offense then defense. You can easily lose a game with a misplay on offense.

And when the game goes into a second, or even a third overtime like Monday's game between the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penquins, holy cow, you can't help but stay glued to the television.

Pittsburgh's Petr Sykora, not only scored the game-winner, apparently he predicted it between overtime periods one and two.

I love hockey and, sad to say, I am a Los Angeles Kings fan and I really don't care who wins the Stanley Cup this year. Which is, by the way, the grandest, oldest and most treasured trophies in professional sports.

But I could not tear myself away from the game on Monday. When I watch sports on television, I'm either laying back in my recliner or spread out on my bed. Monday night I was sitting on the edge of my seat and found myself standing up during a flurry in front of the net.

I was so caught up in the game, I refused an incoming call from Charlize Theron. Well, not really, but I would have refused it.

Another beauty in playoff overtime, there are no commercial breaks, no TV time-outs - NOTHING - just overtime hockey.

I was afraid to go get more potato chips or Raisinettes. They were in the kitchen. Can you imagine leaving for one second and having the goal scored?

Those guys are out there, taking shorter shifts, trying to skate fast and stay on their feet - or blades.

Hockey skating for three 20-minute periods is one of the most tiring and difficult things to do of any athletic endeavor, let alone adding three extra periods in the same night.

One little bounce of the puck or misstep can end the game. On Monday, the Red Wings could have won the whole enchilada, and boy they tried, blasting 58 shots at Penquins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. Fleury, the first player chosen in the NHL entry draft in 2003, was brilliant in goal.

The Red Wings outshot the Pens 34-18 in regulation. That should be a big enough difference to score one more goal than the opponent. Pittsburgh only had four shots at Red Wing goalie Chris Osgood in the third, but the last one by Max Talbot at 19:25 tied the game at 3-3, setting up the greatest spectacle in sports.

Detroit was 35 seconds away from the Cup. In overtime, every man in the red uniforms wanted to be the one to become the 15th player in NHL history and third in Red Wing history to score a cup-clinching goal in overtime.

There have been several overtime goals scored in the playoffs, and even in a first-round game it is exciting. Since the NHL became the only league to exclusively do battle for Lord Stanley's Cup in the 1926-27 season, 14 goals were scored in an overtime period to clinch the title.

In 1933, Bill Cook was the first to do it after he scored at the 7:34-minute mark of overtime for the New York Rangers. The following year Mush March gave the Chicago Blackhawks the title in the second overtime with a goal at 10:05. Jason Arnott was the last one to clinch in overtime, giving the New Jersey Devils a double-overtime win in 2000.

It then took the Red Wings almost 50 extra minutes to realize they were not going to do it - and were going to take their weary bodies back to Pittsburgh for a game six.

The Penquins had their backs to the wall and came out charged up, taking a 2-0 lead after one period before a stunned Detroit crowd. But the Red Wings roared back, scoring a goal late in the second and two in the first 10 minutes of the third, taking a 3-2 lead - Tasting the Cup.

Then came Talbot's goal, setting up the drama.

Five-minute overtimes and shootouts during the regular season are exciting and should stay. But they will never equal the excitement of playoff overtimes.

It is by far more exciting than anything in sports. Let's hope it happens again tonight in game six on NBC at 5 p.m.

I know I'll be watching.

June 4, 2008