On this date in Penguins history: The night Petr Sykora called his shot

The Penguins winger made them put the Stanley Cup back in its case.

Sixteen years ago today, Penguins winger Petr Sykora said he was going to score in a marathon overtime game in the Stanley Cup Final — and then he did just that, causing the Stanley Cup to be put back inside its case for a couple more nights.

Flashback to 2008 when the Penguins had ran roughshod through the Eastern Conference en route to their first Stanley Cup Final appearance in over a decade.

The Cup Final was a different animal for Pittsburgh, however, as the Red Wings team was full of grizzly veterans and life wasn’t easy for the Penguins.

They trailed 2-0 and were only able to salvage one win at home in Games 3 and 4.

Back to Joe Louis Arena it went for Game 5 and the Cup was in the building as the Red Wings were looking to hoist it in front of their home crowd.

The Penguins jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but Detroit clawed back and evened things up before taking a 3-2 lead of their own.

Maxime Talbot played the role of hero for the opening act of the night when he tied the game at 3-3 while the Penguins had their net empty.

It took an overtime period and then a second and into a third before Petr Sykora told Pierre McGuire he was going to score.

And then he did.

The Penguins would lose the series in Game 6 back in Pittsburgh two nights later, but little did we know that sweet revenge would be coming a year later.