From Fruit of the Loom to the Fruits of Victory

DALLAS —  Jean-Sebastien Giguere, the Mighty Ducks’ goaltender, collapsed in front of an electric fan, letting it blow cool air over him between periods. His counterpart with the Dallas Stars, Marty Turco, took intravenous fluids.

Adam Oates of the Ducks kept changing his underwear.

“By the end of the game,” Oates said Friday of the Ducks’ 4-3, five-overtime victory over the Stars in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal playoff series, “I think my underwear bag weighed 30 pounds.”

As Thursday turned to Friday -- the American Airlines Center public address announcer greeted the beginning of the final overtime with, “Good morning, Stars fans,” but only about half the original crowd of 18,532 was still there to hear him -- the fourth-longest game in NHL history finally ended at 12:32 a.m. That was 5 hours and 52 minutes after it started and only 37 1/2 hours before today’s scheduled noon PDT start for Game 2.

Eight skaters played more than 50 minutes in Game 1, led by Sergei Zubov of the Stars, who played 63 minutes 51 seconds. The Stars’ Mike Modano led forwards with 55:29. Keith Carney played 56:20 to lead the Ducks. Rob Niedermayer played 53:01. Giguere and Turco played the entire 140:48.

“The more you go into overtime, the easier it is for the goalies,” said Giguere, who faced 63 shots to 54 for Turco. “The shots aren’t as hard and the speed isn’t there.”

Players did whatever they could to stay comfortable.

In favor of dry (or drier) equipment, they discarded jerseys, T-shirts and underpants drenched in sweat. They dried their skates between periods. Carney, who had two pairs, said he changed his skates 12 times.

Mostly, though, they did what they could to replenish themselves, gobbling up bagels, fruit, power gel and energy bars and guzzling water and Pedialyte, a rehydrating fluid more commonly used for treating children.

“We make sure there’s food around in case the game goes into overtime,” said Mark O’Neill, the Ducks’ equipment manager. “A few years ago in Detroit, we had a triple-overtime game and we didn’t have anything, and the guys were just dying. They were starving. So we have stuff to keep their energy up.”

Said veteran Pierre Turgeon of the Stars: “Even on the bench after shifts, you’ve got to keep drinking. These games take a lot out of you.”

But the players also need to know when enough is enough.

“The thing is, you’ve got to be careful about putting too much on your stomach,” Oates said. “You don’t want to go out there and throw up on the ice.”

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Associated Press contributed to this report.