The Kentucky Derby is known as “the most exciting two minutes in sports,”  and that moniker isn’t far from being true, but it got me thinking.  What truly are the most exciting two minutes in sports?  Basketball is immediately eliminated because there’s more timeouts than a kindergarten class and I’m forced to watch the Progressive guy hook some unassuming gas customers up, too much time elapses.  Every event on this list isn’t exactly two minutes of course, but basketball is the most elongated of all the sports.

3.  The last 1:30 in a playoff hockey game – Hockey’s the only sport where you can add an extra player, making a late game push inevitable.  In almost every ending to every playoff game, several decent chances on net will come.  It’s a matter of heroics from the goalie or goal scorer.  Last night’s Rangers thriller proves that even though buzzer beaters are rare in hockey, they’re not impossible.

2.  The Kentucky Derby -  The cliché really does ring true.  You watch two minutes of ups and downs with no interruptions.  It would win number one if it wasn’t horse racing.  The most exciting two minutes in sports has to involve a sport where the outcome impacts my emotions.

3.  The last two minutes of a playoff football game -  It sounds weird and vague, but think about the last two minutes of a good football game.  Sure, there are breaks like basketball, but because of the stakes, and the high stakes action on every play, it moves with the fluidity of the derby and the tension of the end of a hockey game.  It’s by far the best sport to watch, and there’s nothing more exhilarating than watching quarterbacks or defenses etch their name in legend with superhuman performances to swing an entire season.