CHICAGO — Over all those years and in all those dreams, this is exactly what it looked like.

A frigid and dark October night on the North Side. A standing room only crowd. A key home run by a star player. A swing-and-a-miss from the opponent’s final batter in the top of the ninth.

A celebration that spilled out from the dugout and toward the mound. A party that left its seats and joined those who were yelling and hollering under the iconic red marquee at the corner of Clark and Addison. Fans who refused to leave and ushers who were reluctant to make such a request.

The white “W” flag flying from the center field scoreboard as its analog clock clicked toward midnight.

Indeed, if you didn’t hear the chants of “two more wins,” you might have thought a World Series title had just been clinched at Wrigley Field on Sunday night.

In reality, the Chicago Cubs had just resuscitated their chances for a championship with a dramatic 3-2 win over the Cleveland Indians in Game 5 of the World Series.

But considering it was a win 71 years in the making — plus the two frustrating nights of the losses in games 3 and 4 — you begin to understand the response.

“So many people in Chicago have not seen a World Series win here,” first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “It was emotional for them. It was emotional for us.”

Rizzo will now stand to be corrected, of course. At least 41,711 people plus the untold thousands who will one day claim they were here can now say they’ve seen a World Series win at Wrigley Field.

They join the surviving members of the crowd of 41,708 (plus any surviving members of the crowd that also claims they were there) that saw the Cubs beat the Detroit Tigers 8-7 in 12 innings on the afternoon of October 8, 1945, the last time the home team won a World Series game at Wrigley Field.

Now, it would have been a cruel twist of the knife to make Cubs fans wait the almost 26,000 days between that last victory and this World Series appearance then make Chicago sit through three Cleveland victories and a presentation of the Commissioner’s Trophy at the Friendly Confines.

And yet as fans poured into the ballpark for game 5, that was a very real possibility. The Cubs offense had gone missing in a 1-0 loss in Friday’s game 3 and a 7-2 beatdown by the Indians in Saturday’s game 4 started the creeping realization that “next year” may really not be “this year.”

The secondary ticket market responded in kind with prices that once hovered in “my 401K is really going to miss this” territory falling to something resembling a nice weekend getaway. And while the streets on Friday and Saturday coursed with a noticeable type of anticipation and energy, Sunday’s atmosphere was more reserved. The lines for the bars were a bit shorter. The crowd outside Fox Sports set outside the bleacher gate a bit less rambunctious. Wrigleyville hadn’t yet turned to Mudville, but it was heading that way.

Still, the fans held out hope. Several hours before the game, some fans began using chalk to write messages of encouragement to the Cubs on the outer brick wall. As the team took the field to start the game, fans in the upper deck broke out into a loud chorus of “Let’s Go Cubbies” that quickly spread to other parts of the ballpark.

“They brought the noise today,” Rizzo said. “They had a lot of nervous energy just like us”

A solo home run by Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez in the second inning put the Indians on the board first and quieted the crowd, but only temporarily. Jon Lester revived things by going 1-2-3 in both the third and fourth innings, setting the stage for the bottom of the fourth.

That’s when Bryant broke out of his 1-for-14 slump by parking a Trevor Bauer fastball into the left field basket, tying the game. Rizzo followed with a double that just missed being a home run and Zobrist brought him home with a single that gave the Cubs just their second lead since their win in game 2.

A sac fly by David Ross brought home the inning final run, establishing the total Aroldis Chapman was entrusted to protect over eight outs, starting with one gone in the seventh inning.

In the stands, the fans counted down from eight, zero representing a chance to go to Cleveland for the franchise’s first game in November and a chance at one and then maybe two more victories in front of a crowd less hospitable than this one.

Down on the field, center field Dexter Fowler said he was counting the opposite way. One out, two outs and then three, the total to end each inning.

Still, after three nights, the relationship between fans and team finally synced, the totals put on the scoreboard by the Cubs reflecting the wild wishes harbored by those in the stands over so many years that decidedly did not end with nights like this one.

A few minutes after Chapman blew his final pitch past Ramirez, the Cubs players reappeared on the field for a love-in with the park that remained remarkably full. For the fans, it was a curtain call. For the players, it was a chance to salute their supporters after a combined 90 games of support.

And while it didn’t necessarily seem like the sort of thing a team that still trails in the series 3-2 might do, players said they never hesitated in returning to the field.

“It was the right thing to do,” Cubs right fielder Jason Heyward said. “We know we still have a lot of work to do, but we wanted to let them know we appreciate everything.”

More than an hour after the game ended, a decent chunk of people remained lined along the left field wall cheering as Lester and Ross appeared on the MLB Network set.

The scene will be relegated to the dustbin of history in two or three days if Cleveland clinches on home turf. But if the Cubs put together two more victories with two starters who are more rested than what Cleveland will field? Well, then Game 5 represents the turning point and the moment when all those decades of dreams among the Cub faithful finally crystalized and became a real thing to witness and cheer about.

A Cubs World Series win at Wrigley Field.

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Kevin Kaduk is a writer for Yahoo Sports.. Have a tip? Email him at kevinkaduk@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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