Most Dramatic Sports Moments of the Week

This past week in sports has been dominated yet again by the NHL and NBA playoffs, with numerous series coming to a close. 

There were Game 7 clinchers, wild overtime finishes, and suspenseful endings across both sports that gave us our weekly dose of drama, but the NFL managed to pitch in a little as well thanks to the NFL Draft.

Here are the most dramatic moments in sports from the past week.

OT Goal Eliminates Penguins

The New York Rangers mostly dominated the Pittsburgh Penguins during their first-round series, but Sidney Crosby is always a dangerous foe and New York certainly did not want to let Pittsburgh back in.

The Rangers got on the board first with a nice goal from Derek Stepan, but Nick Spaling tied it up in the second period for Pittsburgh.

No goals were scored in the third period, so overtime was needed to decide a winner. Each side had their chances, but speedy Carl Hagelin let a nasty wrist shot fly that got over Marc-Andre Fleury's shoulder and sent the Rangers into a frenzy.

Ward Buzzer-Beater

The New York Rangers and Washington Capitals certainly started off the second round with a bang on Thursday night.

Alex Ovechkin started things off with a beautiful goal in the first period, and they held off the Rangers for the next period and a half.

But Jesper Fast found the back of the net with a little over four minutes to go and tied the score up 1-1, and the pace accelerated for the last few minutes.

It seemed like overtime was imminent with the puck in the corner with a few seconds left, but then Ovechkin made a slick pass out to Joel Ward, who slipped the puck into the net as the buzzer sounded to give them a rare buzzer-beater goal.

NFL Draft

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

The 2015 NFL Draft may not have had any massive trades or shocking picks in the top five or even the top 10, but that doesn't mean it was void of drama.

With Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota on the board, there was plenty of drama in the air as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tennessee Titans let the clock tick almost all the way down.

But each team just ended up selecting their guy, Winston to Tampa Bay and Mariota to Tennessee. It will be incredibly interesting to see how each selection pan out.

Clippers Force Game 7

The San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Clippers play very different styles of basketball, but that's part of what has made their series so riveting.

In Game 6, with Los Angeles down 3-2 in the series, both teams battled and ended both the first and second quarters all tied up.

But the Clippers pulled away slowly behind Blake Griffin's 26 points and Chris Paul's 19 points, and they held off San Antonio's late push thanks to two Marco Belinelli three-pointers with roughly one minute remaining.

The Clippers bared down and persevered, coming out with a 102-96 victory to force Game 7.

Capitals-Islanders Game 7

The Washington Capitals and New York Islanders have treated everyone to arguably the best series in the Eastern Conference, and battled all the way to the last whistle in Game 7.

Both teams seemed a bit jumpy in the first period, and neither squad got on the scoreboard until there was less than two minutes remaining in the second period and Washington's Joel Ward put one home.

Frans Nielsen tied it up roughly three minutes into the final period, and both teams buckled down as they tried to take a lead.

Finally, with just over two minutes left, rookie Evgeny Kuznetsov got the puck past Jaroslav Halak and put the Capitals into the second round.

Hawks-Nets OT

The Brooklyn Nets found themselves down 2-1 in their first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks, and undoubtedly did not want to fall behind 3-1.

That type of resolve was on display Monday night, with Deron Williams finally putting on the show that Brooklyn has been waiting a long time for.

Williams' 16 fourth-quarter points helped spur a late comeback that forced overtime, and he continued battling in overtime to finalize the win.

He finished with an impressive 35 points to give the Nets a 120-115 overtime victory.

Blackhawks Eliminate Predators

The Chicago Blackhawks and Nashville Predators had by far the most riveting series of any in the entire league, with multiple overtime games and even one going to three overtimes.

Chicago was up 3-2 going into Game 6, and Nashville jumped out of the gates with two early goals in the first period. The two teams would go on trading goals and Chicago finished strong to head into the second period tied up at 3-3.

The next time the puck went into the net was not for almost two full periods later, when Duncan Keith got a long shot to sneak in with a mere 3:48 remaining. Chicago held Nashville off in the final minutes and advanced to the second round for the fifth consecutive season.

Cleveland Eliminates Boston with Force

The Cleveland Cavaliers were clearly a better team than the Boston Celtics from the very beginning of their first-round series, and their 3-0 series lead proved that.

But Game 4 was closer than expected despite LeBron James and Kyrie Irving each registering a double-double, and it got incredibly chippy as the drama unfolded. 

First, Kelly Olynyk had a questionable play where he seemed to yank on Kevin Love's shoulder. Love immediately left the game and did not return.

Things only heated up from there, with Kendrick Perkins shoving Boston's Jae Crowder during an attempted screen, and then J.R. Smith taking a backhand swing at Crowder underneath the hoop.

Boston staged a big third-quarter comeback despite all of these altercations, but Cleveland was still able to close them out in a tightly contested final quarter and escaped with a 101-93 victory.