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Tkachuk was racing across the red line as the puck sped straight for the goal in the closing seconds of Game Five of the Stanley Cup Final. He dove to the ice and swiped with his outstretched stick, barely knocking the puck clear of the net. Then, he plunged into the net himself.

Alas, moments later, just as he extricated himself, Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid scored with 17.3 seconds to play for a 5-3 win. (The Oilers would go on to win the next game, but lose Game 7 to the Panthers.)

Tkachuk's sprawling save was all over SportsCenter and . That McDavid made it moot does not erase Tkachuk's never-give-up effort. And that is where Beebe fits in.

You remember his play, don't you? Even if you were not yet born, surely you have . The Dallas Cowboys were beating the Buffalo Bills 52-17, late in the Super Bowl following the 1993 season, when Cowboys defensive end Jim Jeffcoat knocked the ball loose from Bills quarterback Frank Reich. Cowboys defensive tackle Lett scooped it up and rumbled 64 yards for what looked like a certain touchdown. But Beebe, a speedy wide receiver, streaked down the field and knocked the ball away from Lett – who was hot-dogging the football in an outstretched hand – an inch or two before the goal line. The ball rolled out of the end zone for a touchback.

Don Beebe remains a living, breathing metaphor for never say die. What did he think of Tkachuk's ice-sprawling effort? I emailed him to find out, but he didn't answer for several days. He was on a fishing trip in Minnesota, blessedly free of technology. When at last we spoke, Beebe said he had not heard about Tkachuk's play, so I sent him the video.

"Obviously, that is a really great effort by Matt," Beebe said after taking a look. "I love the play. I love the effort. But what was the score when he did that?"

The Oilers had led 4-3.

"See, that's one difference," Beebe said. "They still had hope. With us, it was 52-17. We didn't have hope."

Which is precisely why people remember Beebe's play – and why it often makes lists of the top plays in Super Bowl history. Tkachuk's play, great as it is, isn't likely to make such future lists of hockey history. Besides, his Panthers won the Cup, while Beebe's Bills lost four consecutive Super Bowls. (As if you need reminding.)

Beebe finally won one of those with the Green Bay Packers. When quarterback Brett Favre knelt to run out the clock, Beebe was the safety 10 yards behind him. And he thought of Buffalo as he watched those last seconds tick off.

"The thoughts just flooded me, and I became emotional," he told me a few years back. "And I thought about all the guys I played with in Buffalo, and Marv (Levy) and Ralph (Wilson) and Bill (Polian). And I know this is going to sound strange, but I felt guilty. I thought, 'Why me?' "

He need not have felt guilty. Buffalo sports fans often feel good for ex-Bills and ex-Sabres when they win Super Bowls and Stanley Cups elsewhere. (OK, not Jack Eichel.) This week they felt good for a half-dozen former Sabres on the Panthers, including Kyle Okposo and Sam Reinhart, who had the Cup-winning goal.

Beebe saw that Buffalo was a hockey town from the moment he arrived here. The Bills had selected him in the third round of the 1989 draft. The next day, he flew into the Buffalo airport and saw a media mob waiting.

"I grabbed my wife's hand and I said, 'That can't be all for me,' " Beebe says. "It turned out Alexander Mogilny's plane had landed at the same time as mine. He defected (from Russia) and it was an international story. And I was, like, 'OK, thank God.' "

Beebe has won that one Super Bowl, plus two Illinois state championships at Aurora Christian High School. These days, he is the head football coach at Aurora University, a Division III school. Last season, his Spartans went 11-0 before losing in the second round of the Division III playoffs.

"We're knocking at the door," he says. "If we can win a national championship, that would be the trifecta."

Aurora's playoff win came against Coe College, alma mater of Marv Levy, the legendary Bills coach. It so happens that Beebe called Levy for advice when he got the Aurora job.

"I kind of knew what he was going to say, but I wanted to hear him say it anyway. He said, 'Surround yourself with character. Find players with character.' And, boy, was he right," Beebe said.

Beebe chasing down Lett is character at top speed.

"Someone asks me about that play every day," he says. "Seriously, every day. Sometimes they ask, 'Why? Why do that if it didn't make a difference?' "

Actually, it made all the difference.