In the Steel City, unknown 5'7" goalie Johan "Mooooose" Hedberg has been a great story for the Penguins. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, veteran Felix "The Cat" Potvin has backstopped an amazing late-season playoff run for the Kings, resurrecting his career in the process.

On Wednesday night, though, both of those goaltenders took a back seat to a couple of guys you may have heard of: Dominik Hasek and Patrick Roy.

Hasek, who has five Vezina and two Hart trophies to hang his 1998 Olympic gold medal around, was up to his old tricks in the Sabres' series-tying 5-2 win over the Pens.

Protecting a slim 3-2 third-period lead, Hasek was called upon to face a penalty shot. Pittsburgh sniper Martin Straka, a teammate of Hasek's on the Olympic champion Czech team, was awarded the rare playoff opportunity after he was pulled down by Buffalo defenseman Jason Woolley.

Obviously, this was a key moment. A Penguin goal ties it, 3-3, and sends the crowd into a frenzy. If the Pens could've rallied for the victory, they would've taken a 3-1 series lead.

As the nervous crowd rose to watch, Straka approached. He deked to the backhand, but Hasek's stacked pads were waiting.

No goal. No surprise.

In his amazing career, The Dominator has faced an NHL-record four penalty shots in the playoffs (mostly because the Sabres -- confident in their goalie -- like to let their defensemen gamble). He's stopped three of those four, allowing only Mats Sundin to beat him. And who could forget how he stunned Canada during the Olympic shootout in Nagano?

Boosted by Hasek's save, the Sabres deposited two more pucks behind Hedberg to wrap up the win.

A bit later, at the Staples Center, Roy -- he of the three Stanley Cup rings -- put on his own show.

The Kings, desperate to even the series with suddenly Joe Sakic-less Colorado and revved up by the home crowd, stormed out of the dressing room. Their high-energy attack created several excellent scoring chances for the likes of Ziggy Palffy, Adam Deadmarsh, Luc Robitaille and Jozef Stumpel. But, time and time again, Roy turned them away.

Despite outshooting the Avs, 10-3, in the first period, the Kings couldn't dent Roy. After one period. the Kings were shaking their collective heads in a scoreless game.

Buoyed by Roy's sensational play, the Avs put three pucks past Potvin in the second period. The Kings never did manage to solve Roy, who posted his league-record 17th playoff shutout.

At night's end, the Avs had moved a step closer to the Western Conference final, while the Sabres had revived their chances to move on in the East. On this night, there was no "Moose" or "Cat" talk, just a familar story carved by a pair of future first-ballot Hall of Famers.

E.J. Hradek covers hockey for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at ej.hradek@espnmag.com.