It Happened at the Coliseum … on MAY 18th

The Isles never played a game at the Coliseum on May 18^th.

In fact, only one game in Islander history was played on this date.

Also on this date: (1993) Stephane Lebeau scored at the 6:21 mark of the second overtime as the Montreal Canadiens took a 2-game-to-0 lead in the Wales Conference Final with a 4-3 victory.

See the video of the goal (in French) here:
http://video.canadiens.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=258158 

It was the Canadiens’ 10^th straight playoff win, one shy of the Stanley Cup record for a single season and was Montreal’s 6^th overtime win of the playoffs.  For the Isles, it was their first overtime loss since April 11, 1985 vs. Washington, ending an eight-game win streak in overtime.  It was also the first overtime goal allowed by the Islanders in a span of 207:57, and ended the 2^nd longest game (and longest loss) in Isles history.

The streak:

04/18/87	@	Pat LaFontaine	W	Wsh	01:08:47
04/06/88	Vs	Pat LaFontaine	W	NJ	00:06:11
04/10/88	@	Brent Sutter	W	NJ	00:15:07
04/09/90	Vs	Brent Sutter	W	NYR	00:20:59
04/20/93	@	Brian Mullen	W	Wsh	00:34:50
04/22/93	Vs	Ray Ferraro	W	Wsh	00:04:46
04/24/93	Vs	Ray Ferraro	W	Wsh	00:25:40
05/14/93	@	David Volek	W	Pit	00:05:16
05/18/93	@	Stephan LeBeau	L	Mtl	00:26:21

The Isles would not win again in playoff overtime until John Tavares scored 15 seconds into overtime on April 19th against Washington.  The Isles have played only one road overtime game since; Martin St. Louis sent the Isles into summer with an OT game in Tampa in 2004.

The final OT win in Coliseum history:

All-time, the Isles played no playoff games on May 18th at the Coliseum; they compiled a 0-0 playoff record on this date at 1255 Hempstead Turnpike in Uniondale.

It Happened at the Coliseum … on MAY 17th

32 years ago tonight (1983) Based on the way the Edmonton Oilers were talking before the series, it was probably not a surprise to them the Stanley Cup Final ended in a sweep.  Of course, they were on the short end of it – as the Islanders defeated Edmonton 4-2 to claim their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup.

The game was nearly decided in a span of 1:37 of the first period, as Bryan Trottier, John Tonelli and Mike Bossy all scored to give the Islanders a 3-0 lead.

To their credit, Edmonton fought back in the second period on goals by Lee Fogolin and Mark Messier to cut the Islanders’ lead to 3-2.

However, with Billy Smith enroute to the Conn Smythe Trophy, the Oilers could not find the tying goal. With 1:09 left to play, Ken Morrow hit the empty net to assure the victory, and the Islanders’ fourth straight Stanley Cup.

The high-powered Oilers managed only 7 shots in the third period in part because they spent over 5 minutes shorthanded.  The last 3:10 that they were shorthanded came when Glenn Anderson was assessed a major penalty for slashing Billy Smith, enraging  Oiler coach Glen Sather, “He’ll probably be up for an Oscar for that.  Well, at least he’s starring Off-Broadway”. 

Smith admitted after the game that he had, well let’s just say, embellished, the call.  “I was hurt about as bad as Gretzky was (in game 2, when Smith slashed him), but (Andy) Van Hellomend wasn’t going to call a penalty until I laid down and started squirming. I’m sorry I had to do it. I hated doing it- it’s not my style to do it. But people are giving me cheap shots all the time.” Smith’s comments appeared in a Newsday story by Helene Elliott.

Here's the edited game replay from Hockey Night in Canada:

Here's some highlights and post-game coverage from SportsChannel - the famed interview with John Ziegler and Dave Hodge comes about 12 minutes in:



Bob Bourne and Denis Potvin brought Lord Stanley to "Live at 5" the next day:




Here's Gretzky and Bossy looking back at the series  (99 tells the story about looking at the Islander dressing room after the series):

Here's the Stanley Cup film.



I love a parade!

The "Core of the Four" were honored in 2008 at the Coliseum. Here's the coverage from Fox Sports NY.

Also on this date: (1980) – The Islanders scored 5 power play goals (3 in the first period) and cruised to a 6-2 win over the Flyers in the first Stanley Cup Final game ever played at the Coliseum.  Denis Potvin scored twice and added two assists – all on the power play. The win gave the Isles a 2-game-to-1 lead in the series.  The Isles would go on to score 15 power play goals in the series, most ever by a team in the Stanley Cup Final. 

Also on this date: (1981) in Bloomington, Minnesota, Butch Goring scored three times as the Isles rallied from 2-0 and 3-1 deficits to defeat the North Stars 7-5 and take a 3-0 lead in the series.  Mike Bossy scored twice, giving him 17 goals on the spring as he became only the 2^nd player in NHL history to score at least 17 goals in a playoff year – Minnesota’s Steve Payne would join the 17-goal club two nights later.

All-time, the Isles played two playoff games on May 17th at the Coliseum; they compiled a 2-0 playoff record on this date at 1255 Hempstead Turnpike in Uniondale. 

It Happened at the Coliseum … on MAY 16th

The team that called Nassau County, NY home for 43 years never played a game at the Coliseum on May 16^th (5/16).

They played only 1 on the road – and it cemented a dynasty:

Also on this date: (1982) – Mike Bossy scored a pair of 2^nd period power play goals to break a 1-1 tie as the Islanders completed a 4-game series sweep of Vancouver to win their third consecutive Stanley Cup.

Butch Goring had given the Islanders a 1-0 lead in the first period, with his 6^th goal of the playoffs, but Stan Smyl gave hope to the home team heading into the first intermission. The Canucks took three penalties in the second period and the Isles, particularly Bossy, made them pay, scoring twice.  It gave Bossy seven goals in the series and 17 goals in the playoffs.

Bossy, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy, became the first player since Jean Beliveau (1956) to score 7 goals in a Stanley Cup Final; he scored 17 goals for the second consecutive playoff year – he would do it again in 1983 (At the time, only Reggie Leach (19 for Philadelphia in 1976) had scored more goals in a single playoff   Jari Kurri (19 in 1985) and Joe Sakic (18 in 1996) are the only other players to score more goals than Bossy in a playoff year.

Billy Smith made 23 saves for the win; he’d have to wait 1 year and 1 day for his Conn Smythe Trophy.

Here's the complete game (edited) replay:

http://video.islanders.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=3168

Here are the Islander goals, from Hockey Night:

And here's the Stanley Cup celebration, as the Isles become the only American-based team to win three straight Stanley Cups:



Three days later there was a parade to salute the Champs:

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/20/nyregion/40000-cheer-for-islanders-at-li-parade.html

The Times said that 40,000 were at the Parade -- one of the people who got to ride in that parade was me -- thanks to Jean Potvin for a moment I'll never forget.  I told the story here:
http://www.nyiskinny.com/2014/03/my-parade-ride.html

All-time, the Isles played no playoff games on May 16th at the Coliseum; they compiled a 0-0 playoff record on this date at 1255 Hempstead Turnpike in Uniondale. 

It Happened at the Coliseum … on MAY 15th

The Isles never played a game at the Coliseum on May 15^th.

They played only twice on the road – and got blown out in both games.

Goal Magazine, from the 1980 Playoffs

Also on this date: (1980) Paul Holmgren scored three times as the Flyers evened the Stanley Cup Final at 1-game-to-1 with an 8-3 win over the Islanders at the Spectrum. Butch Goring scored twice for the Isles. 

The Flyers finished 25 points ahead of the Isles in 1979-80.
 Note the conference standings,
 The Isles finsihed sixth overall, which is how the playoff were
 grouped -- that's how the Isles faced LA in the first round.

Also on this date: (1984) Edmonton scored 6 goals in a 21:13 span of the second and third periods, as they rallied from a 2-1 deficit for a 7-2 win over the Islanders in game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final at Northlands Coliseum. The Oilers grabbed a 2-1 lead in the series.

All-time, the Isles played no playoff games on May 15th at the Coliseum; they compiled a 0-0 playoff record on this date at 1255 Hempstead Turnpike in Uniondale. 

It Happened at the Coliseum … on MAY 14th

32 years ago tonight (1983) The Isles took a stranglehold on their fourth straight Stanley Cup, scoring 4 unanswered goals in the third period, to break a 1-1 tie and defeat the Edmonton Oilers 5-1. The win gave the Isles a 3-game-to-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final.

Anders Kallur scored with just 19 seconds to play in the first period to give the Isles the lead, but Jarri Kurri scored on a power play at 1:05 of the second period to knot the game.

It stayed that way until the third period, when Bob Bourne broke the tie at 5:11.  The fans were still celebrating when Ken Morrow doubled the lead 70 seconds later.  The Isles maintained the two goal advantage until late in the third, when Duane Sutter scored  at 16:23; brother Brent added a power play tally with 18 seconds to play for the final margin of victory.  Each Sutter assisted on the other’s goal.

The game showed the depth of the Isles – as 5 different Islanders scored, and 10 Islanders had assists.

And then of course, there was Billy Smith, who told the NY Times’ Kevin (Paul) Dupont: “The more (the Oilers) talk about running me, the harder I play.  The more they talk, the madder I get.  They’ve done a lot of things in this series that has gotten people made – including me.”  Smith had been involved in both a slashing incident and had been spear by Dave Lumley in the two games in Edmonton.

“Number 1, you’ve got to look at Smith”, said Bobby Bourne. “The saves he’s making now, well, he wasn’t making them during the regular season.”   There was a reason that Smitty had the reputation of being the greatest money goaltender of all-time.

Here are some highlights with Jiggs and Eddie:




Don Gould was as the game for NBC-4.

Also on this date: (1981) - Denis Potvin’s second goal of the game, a power play tally, broke a 3-3 tie at the 8:00 mark of the third period as the Isles went on to a 6-3 win in game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final with Minnesota.  Mike Bossy also scored twice while Potvin finished with 4 points (2 goals, 2 assists) as the Isles took a 2-0 lead in the series.

And in Pittsburgh… (1993) – David Volek scored at 5:16 of overtime as the Islanders dethroned the two-time Champion Penguins with a 4-3 victory to win the series in 7 games.  The Penguins had rallied for 2 goals in the final 4 minutes to force overtime, but the Isles won the Patrick Division playoff championship on Volek’s goal.  The win, the Isles’ 8^th straight in overtime, raised their all-time playoffOT record to 29-7.  The Isles wouldn’t win again in overtime until this past April 19^th (Tavares :15 of OT vs. Washington) and have not won a playoff series since.

Here's the complete game, as called by Jiggs and Eddie (Skip to about 2:30:00 for the winning goal):

Here's a highlight package, from an NHL Network show -- this audio is from the Hockey Night in Canada.  Chris Cuthbert called the play-by-play  -- he now has another place in Islander history as he called the final game the Isles ever played at the Coliseum - game 6 vs. Washington.



Here's the highlight package from that last Coliseum home game -- it's somewhat painful 19 days later -- it's not going to be any better 19 weeks, 19 months or 19 years later.



All-time, the Isles played two playoff games on May 14th at the Coliseum; they compiled a 2-0 playoff record on this date at 1255 Hempstead Turnpike in Uniondale. 

It Happened at the Coliseum … on MAY 13th

This May 13^th is like all of the others in Coliseum history -- the Isles never played a game at the Coliseum on May 13^th.

Also on this date: (1975) – Kate Smith sang; Gary Dornhoefer scored 19 seconds into play and the Flyers eliminated the Islanders with a 4-1 win in  game 7. Rick MacLeish had the other three Flyers goals, cementing the series with an empty net.

Also on this date: (1980) – Five years to the date of their first playoff elimination, the Isles returned to Philadelphia for the first Stanley Cup Final game in their history.  Denis Potvin scored a power play goal 4:07 into overtime as the Isles took a 1 game to 0 lead in the series with a 4-3 victory. The teams traded goals in each of the three regulation periods before Potvin potted the game winner with just 1 second remaining on a penalty to Joe Watson.

Here's the CBC Pre-game comments from before game 1:

Here's the first period:

(unfortunately I don't video for the rest of the game)

Also on this date: (1982) – Billy Smith needed to make only 23 saves as the Isles took a 3-game-to-0 stranglehold on the Stanley Cup Final with a 3-0 win over Vancouver at the Pacific Coliseum.  Clark Gillies, Mike Bossy and Bob Nystrom (the latter into the empty net) scored for the Isles.  It was Bossy’s 5^th goal of the series – and he wasn’t done yet!

You've probably seen Bossy's goal thousands of times by now -- but here it is again.



You can see some other highlights here:

https://youtu.be/ONYTURIJ4TM 1st pd
https://youtu.be/HZBrnlDJyeY 2nd pd

https://youtu.be/1PMw7aBHKXE 3rd pd

All-time, the Isles played no playoff games on May 13th at the Coliseum; they compiled a 0-0 playoff record on this date at 1255 Hempstead Turnpike in Uniondale. 

It Happened at the Coliseum … on MAY 12th

22 years ago tonight (1993) – Steve Thomas scored two goals, including the game-winner at 10:32 of the third period, as the Islanders evened their best-of-7 Patrick Division final with the Penguins at 3 games each, with a 7-5 victory.

The Isles led 1-0, 2-1 and 4-2 but each time the two-time Champion Penguins came back to even the game.

Brad Dalgarno scored just 25 seconds into the game to give the Isles the lead but future-Isle Martin Straka tied it 6 minutes later.  The deadlock didn’t last long as Derek King gave the Isles back the lead just 32 seconds after Straka’s goal and it remained 2-1 through the first intermission. Steve Junker, playing his first NHL game in place of an injured Pat Flatley, assisted on King’s tally.

A wild second period featured five goals.  Mario Lemieux tied the game early in the period, but power play goals by Ray Ferraro (his 12^th of the post-season and Thomas gave the Isles a 4-2 lead. Goals by Straka and Kevin Stevens evened the game through 40 minutes.

Brian Mullen gave the Isles the lead for good, at 5:42 of the third, and Thomas then restored the 2-goal advantage five minutes later. 

"We read a quote from Kevin Stevens that they were going to finish us off tonight," Thomas told Newsday’s Jeff Williams. "We wanted to prove him wrong."

Stevens’ second goal, with 2:32, brought the Champions back within one, before Uwe Krupp hit the empty net to cement the win.  (Remember it was Krupp’s overtime goal three years earlier (for Buffalo, vs. Pittsburgh) that had knocked the Isles into the playoffs and put the Penguins in a position to draft Jaromir Jagr.)

"I'm certainly proud of each and every one of them," Al Arbour said . "It's pride, individually and collectively as a team. They don't want to let each other down. They'll do anything to win."

If Islander fans remember Darius Kasparaitis for one particular game, it is probably this one as his heavy hitting got the Islanders, and the crazy Coliseum crowd excited throughout the game.

"Big guys are easier to hit", Kasparaitis explained to Newsday’s Joe Gergen.”You see a big body and you can't miss…Maybe somebody think I'm crazy. But this is hockey. If I can hit a player like Martin Straka {then a Penguins rookie}, I can hit Lemieux. My teammates tell me to hit everybody."

The win sent the series back to Pittsburgh for a deciding Game 7 – one that would make David Volek an Islander legend.

Here's the SportsChannel broadcast, with Jiggs and Eddie on the call.

If you go almost to the very end (about 2 hours 44 minutes in), you'll see a feature with a familiar title: The Skinny.

Click the link for Steve Thomas in an interview  after the first period with Scott Russell on Hockey Night from the first period -- Thomas is asked about a "Winning is Fun" sign -- a phrase you see me repeat from time to time: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CEc6t1MUgAAyN8E.jpg:large

Also on this date: (1984) In the final home game the Isles played as Stanley Cup Champions, Clark Gillies had his only playoff Hat Trick as the Isles pounded Edmonton 6-1 to even the Stanley Cup Final at 1-1.  The series would then switch to Alberta for game 3, 4, and 5 – Edmonton would win all three, short-circuiting the Islanders’ Drive for Five.

Here are (extended) highlights from Hockey Night in Canada, with Bob Cole, Mickey Redmond and Dick Irvin..

Also on this date: (1981) Anders Kallur and Wayne Merrick each scored twice, as the Islanders defeated Minnesota 6-3 in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup  Final. Both of Kallur’s goals were scored in the first period; his second goal was the second one that the Isles scored while killing a major penalty for spearing to Bob Bourne.

Here's how it was covered on Channel 2, 4, and 7:

All-time, the Isles played three playoff games on May 12th at the Coliseum; they compiled a 3-0 playoff record on this date at 1255 Hempstead Turnpike in Uniondale.