An injury-time goal from Sunderland's Ghanaian international Asamoah Gyan denied Newcastle home-and-away victories over their northeast rivals in the English Premier League on Sunday.
Newcastle, seeking to bounce back from their shock FA Cup exit to lowly Stevenage last week, looked to be heading to a 1-0 victory over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light after a Kevin Nolan goal put them ahead.
But with the game deep into injury time World Cup star Gyan scrambled in a fortunate equaliser to make it 1-1 and deny Newcastle a famous win.
Nolan, who scored a hat-trick in Newcastle's 5-1 thrashing of Sunderland in October, was the Black Cats tormentor once again, firing the Magpies ahead on 52 minutes.
The midfielder pounced after a cross by Joey Barton was headed down by Shola Ameobi to cause panic in the Sunderland defence, allowing Nolan to backheel in from close range.
Yet just as Newcastle's travelling fans prepared to celebrate victory, Gyan popped up in injury time with his eighth goal of the season after a rare mistake by Newcastle keeper Steve Harper.
Then, just as Bruce looked close to despair, the fall-out from Phil Bardsley's shot dropped for Gyan to finally remind everyone why he cost £13m.
Sunderland eyes welling up with tears of sadness turned to those of joy when in the fourth out of five minutes of stoppage time Gyan stood at the right place at the right time to save the home side from a fate worse than just losing.