“THE EMPIRE STRIKES AGAIN” and “BOA CONST-RICHTER”

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740. NEW YORK ISLANDERS VS WASHINGTON CAPITALS

PATRICK DIVISION SEMIFINALS

GAME THREE

APRIL 13, 1985

NASSAU COLISEUM

QUALITY OF PLAY—7.54

DRAMA—7.63

STAR POWER—7.79

CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—7.45

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—6.66

LOCAL IMPACT—7.28

TOTAL: 44.35

“THE EMPIRE STRIKES AGAIN”

There was a time when the team with the reputation for being hardest to kill off in a series was the New York Islanders. Their reputation for never saying die began in just their third season on ice, when the team stormed back from an 0-3 deficit in the second round of the NHL playoffs to shock Pittsburgh, then almost pulled it off again in the very next round, forcing a seventh game against Philly before at last falling. Their Cup Dynasty was filled with dramatic and late heroics, such as John Tonelli’s late game-tying goal and subsequent overtime winner in the decisive Game Five against the Penguins in 1982, and of course Bobby Nystrom’s overtime goal to win the 1980 Stanley Cup.

The dominance atop the league at last ended in 1984, when Edmonton beat the Isles in the Cup Finals. But the suburbanites were hardly ready to cave in, and although they finished third in the Patrick Division in 1985, no one particularly wanted any part of trying to drive a stake through their collective heart.

The job fell to Washington as the 1985 playoffs opened at the Cap Center in Landover, and they appeared—barely—up to the task. They won Game One in overtime, and upped the ante by taking Game Two in double overtime. That put the Caps up 2-0 in a best-of-five series—in other words, the Islanders had them just where they wanted them.

Kelley Hrudey had been brilliant in getting the start in place of usual goalie Billy Smith, so it was expected he would get the call when the series headed north for Game Three, held on Saturday night, April 13, 1985 at the Nassau Coliseum. But coach Al Arbour went back to Smitty in this elimination game. It was “Star Wars Night” at the Coli, a rather minor-league promo more associated with the Charlestown Chiefs than a team looking to make its sixth consecutive Finals, especially in the playoffs. But any excuse to swing around a plastic light saber, I guess. Regardless, the Coliseum “shook like a pep rally” according to Craig Wolff in the Times.

For two periods the force was with the goalies. There wasn’t really a ton for Smith and Al Jensen in the Caps net to do. Shots were at a premium. The teams combined for just 31 shots, fewest ever in an Islanders playoff game to that point. New York managed just two long slappers in the first period, leaving the Coliseum crowd angry, bored and frustrated. Off to buy more beer! The Caps had just six shots, and five in the second, when the Isles had seven, which felt like an offensive explosion. What the teams lacked in shots they made up for in penalties—there were 11 called in the first period alone, and the sin bin was generally occupied throughout the first forty minutes, though the power plays didn’t translate into goals.

For all that, the game was not a slog. On the contrary, it was extremely tense and exciting, especially given the stakes. “A spirited, physical affair,” in the words of Fred Kerber in the News. The Capitals defensive effort was heroic, repeatedly hurling bodies into oncoming pucks, sticks and players. “We couldn't move. We couldn't budge,” said Islanders defenseman Denis Potvin. “We were sweating to stay alive.”

“It was unbelievable,” added Bobby Nystrom. “There was nowhere to move once you got the puck. There was a man on you right away.”

New York was almost always more physical than their opposition in those years, and now they rose to the challenge, including a crushing hit by Bryan Trottier on Larry Murphy that resembled Darth Vader pummeling Luke Skywalker with flying chunks of metal. “Trottier left Murphy trying to remember what countries he has visited in the last 36 hours,” wrote Kerber.

At last, the Empire Struck Back. Potvin, who missed the first two games of the series, blocked a Caps shot, and that began a two-on-one break with Trottier screaming down the ice. Super-sniper Mike Bossy was with him, awaiting the pass that usually came in these situations. But instead Trots unleashed a shot powerful enough to destroy a planet, ripping it over Jensen’s shoulder to break the scoreless tie.

The Sutter Brothers, Duane and Brent, combined for a second, again keyed by a blocked shot and swift counterattack, with Brent scoring with just over six minutes left. At 2-0 it seemed over, but when Washington pulled Jensen for an extra attacker, the Isles got greedy hunting for the empty net goal to seal matters. Instead, Mike Gartner scored for the Caps with 41 seconds left, leaving plenty of time for the fans to chomp on their fingernails.

But the Caps didn’t threaten again, and the horn sounded. The Isles had won 2-1, and that was where the series stood. They were still alive, barely.

AFTERMATH:

The Isles won a crazy Game Four with four third period goals, and then went to DC and beat the Caps in yet another 2-1 game to take the series and complete the comeback. Fittingly, the Islanders are the only team in NHL history to erase an 0-2 lead in a best-of-five series and win 3-2. But the Flyers didn’t let the Isles come back on them in the next round, busting out to a 3-0 lead and completing the Gentlemen’s Sweep in five games. It was the end of an era in Elmont.

WHAT THEY SAID:

“We're not as old and tired as some people think. But between the second and third periods, we were wondering what we had to do, because we were playing so well. The goals were a just reward.”

—Denis Potvin

FURTHER READING:

George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones

VIDEO:

739. NEW JERSEY DEVILS VS NEW YORK RANGERS

EASTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS

GAME FIVE

MAY 11, 1997

CONTINENTAL AIRLINES ARENA

QUALITY OF PLAY—7.94

DRAMA—8.05

STAR POWER—6.07

CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—8.25

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—6.67

LOCAL IMPACT—7.38

TOTAL: 44.36

“BOA CONST-RICHTER”

Mike Richter sometimes gets forgotten in the parade of great goalies the New York Rangers have had over the years. Caught between legends John Vanbiesbrouck and Hendrik Lundqvist, Richter was the netminder when the team won its only Stanley Cup in the last 85 years. Yet he seldom gets his fair due as one of greats who have skated between the pipes on Broadway.

In 1997 the Rangers were still drifting a bit off that 1994 Cup run, when they memorably eliminated New Jersey in a classic Eastern Conference Finals. They were around .500 for most of the year, scraping to a fourth place finish in the Atlantic division. But Richter was solid as usual, and when the playoffs began, the veteran team, led by Mark Messier, Brian Leetch, and their newly acquired Great One, Wayne Gretzky himself, signaled they were ready to turn it up a notch, wiping out Florida and setting up a rematch with the Devils.

New Jersey had rebounded nicely from the ’94 heartbreak to take the 1995 Cup. But they missed the postseason entirely in 1996, a disaster that carried over early in to 1997. A midseason trade for Doug Gilmour seemed to revivify the club, and the Devils were the best team in the east and top-seed, a nice bounce back after their forgettable 1996. They squashed Montreal in five games, setting the stage for a revenge series against the hated Rangers.

The Devils won Game One behind a sterling performance from Brodeur, who put aside his oft-spotty play against the cross-river rivals to shut them out 1-0. In Game Two, however, the Messiah got the best of los Diablos when Messier smashed Gilmour in the face with his stick. No penalty was called, but when an enraged Bill Guerin retaliated and charged at Messier, one was. The Rangers scored on the ensuing power play and went on to win Game Two, then take both contests at MSG, seizing command in the intense series.

Particularly frustrating from New Jersey’s point of view was the referee insistence on adhering to a new “no skaters in the crease” rule designed to help goaltenders. The likes of Brodeur and Mike Richter didn’t need much help—Richter was playing incredibly well, at one point making a save barehanded and pitching shutouts in Games Two and Four—and the Devils had no fewer than three goals wiped out due to a wayward skate blade in the blue area. The Devils also badly missed scoring wing Dave Andreychuk, who had broken an ankle in the season finale. Without a shooting partner Gilmour’s playmaking went wanting.

So the Devils were in a 3-1 hole and up against it when they hosted the Rangers at the Big Airplane, Continental Airlines Arena, on Sunday afternoon, May 11, 1997, in Game Five. The sellout crowd was pockmarked with the usual deep blue infiltrators, Rangers fans who crossed the river and made their presence known.

Those folks got loud when the Rangers scored first. Gretzky had come to New York to join his buddy Messier for one more lunge for a Cup, and now he sent Esa Tikkanen free on a breakaway with a brilliant lead pass. Tikkanen was renowned for stopping and letting fly with a blast rather than trying to deke the goalie on rushes, and he cannoned a shot off the in-goal tv camera just under the crossbar to put New York ahead. It was Tikkanen’s seventh goal of the playoffs already.

A rare double-minor for high sticking called on Leetch allowed the Devils to tie it up in the second, the four-minute power play coming to an end with a Brian Rolston goal that was tipped over Richter’s shoulder.

From there the Devils mostly dominated, but couldn’t solve Richter. As the game deepened and the score remained 1-1, New Jersey was once more taken out of their usual defensive-minded, mistake-free style.

As John Valenti wrote in Newsday, “The Devils were unable to score…and that caused them to become frustrated, become undisciplined, lose confidence, and stop being the team that built its reputation by exploiting the weaknesses of opponents. The hunter became the hunted.”

Richter got some luck, which all the greats do—with 50 seconds left in regulation Guerin cut across the slot and beat a sprawling Richter, but his shot slid off the post and the Rangers cleared it. On to overtime tied at 1-1, and the Meadowlands was fetid with tension.

For fourteen minutes the two teams pawed at one another with no breakthrough. Then the Rangers threw the puck deep. Graves outmuscled the great Scott Stephens behind the net, seized the rubber, and stuffed in a shot past the right post to beat Brodeur and end the game, and the series. 2-1, Rangers in five. It was shockingly similar to the fabled Game Seven goal in double overtime scored by Stephane Matteau three years before to propel New York past Jersey and into the Cup Finals.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Devils forward John MacLean. “It was deja vu.” Howie Rose didn’t start bleating “My Toe! My Toe!” on the Rangers broadcast of the game after Graves’ goal, but otherwise it was a nightmarish rerun for Devils fans.

All told the Devils mustered four goals off Richter in five games (one goal came into an empty net). He stopped 46 shots in Game Five alone. Once again, the Devils were sent home early, courtesy of the Manhattan blueshirts.

AFTERMATH:

The good feelings didn’t last long for the Rangers—they were bounced by the Flyers in five games in the next round.

WHAT THEY SAID:

“If one player has got our number, well, Mike Richter’s got it.”
—Martin Brodeur

FURTHER READING:

Gretzky: An Autobiography by Wayne Gretzky and Rick Reilly

VIDEO: