The extra special time. (NHL).

The first overtime went by without a goal, and nobody thought much about it. The second overtime featured two outstanding goaltenders keeping the score tied. In the third, there was a goal. Then there wasn't. It was disallowed because the net was raised slightly off its moorings. At the beginning of the fourth overtime, the Stars passed smelling salts down the bench. At the end of the fourth, with the score still tied, 3-3, Stars center Jason Arnott crossed through the bench door from the ice, paused, shook his head and laughed.

It certainly was getting laughable. The Ducks and the Stars were just trying to finish Game 1 of their second-round playoff series. The winner would get a 1-0 lead in the series. Somehow, that didn't seem worth it all. But losing such a game could leave a team unable to recover.

In the six longest games in postseason history before last Thursday's marathon, which finished well after midnight as the fourth longest in history, in only one case did the team that lost the game win the series. So, history was set up against the Stars less than a minute into the fifth overtime, when Ducks right winger Petr Sykora sent everyone home with a deflection goal.

Later, Sykora's teammate Steve Thomas said he felt like he was "on Rollerblades in a sandbox" as the overtimes passed. Down the hall, the Stars tried to come to grips with going home empty-handed after playing nearly 141 minutes of hockey.

The Ducks-Stars game was the 11th that reached OT this postseason, and it was another example of why there is nothing better in sports than overtime in the NHL playoffs. No other sport's extra sessions come close.

Basketball? Please. Each overtime lasts a specific length of time, no matter how many points each team scores. Teams get more timeouts, as if they hadn't taken enough in the final 2 minutes of regulation. And there will be more fouls, setting up more free throws. Exciting? Not exactly.

Football? Well, maybe if the game-winning field-goal attempt gets blocked, picked up by the other team, fumbled a few times and then run back 80 yards for a touchdown. Kicking a field goal--even a 60-yarder in the snow--just doesn't cut it. It's slow motion. It's a set play.