It was 26 years ago today...

January 21, 1982

The Isles swamp Pittsburgh 6-1 at the Coliseum, to begin their
record-setting 15-game winning streak.

The game was scoreless into the 2nd period, before Brent Sutter
and Bryan Trottier sandwiched goals around a Rick MacLeish
tally. It was Trottier's 250th NHL goal.

The Isles blew the game open early in the 3rd on goals by Bobby
Bourne and Clark Gillies. Bourne and Billy Carroll would score
late in the game and the Isles had their 6-1 victory.

The Isles actually scored 3 goals on the same 4 on 4. Pat
Boutette and Denis Potvin, playing his 600th NHL game, were both
given double minors at 18:08 of the 2nd period. Trottier
scored 20 seconds later while Bourne and Gillies later completed
a 3 goal in 3:27 outburst.

Gillies, Trottier, and Bossy all extended point stretches to 15
of 16 games.

Roland Melanson stopped 23 of 24 shots.

It was the start of one of the most dominating stretches by any
team in any sport.

Try these numbers:

The Isles won 15 straight, outscoring their opponents by a
combined 97-35--an average of 6.53 - 2.33.

They won by at least 3 goals in all but three games in the
streak.

9-0 at home, 6-0 on the road.

John Tonelli scored the winning goal of the 15th game at 19:13
of OT --remember, there was no OT in those days. That win
established the NHL record. It was one of only two one-goal
wins during the streak. The other was a 7-6 win over Washington
in which all of the goals were scored in the first two periods.
The Isles have not won a 7-6 game in regulation time since.
[They've won 3, all in ot, and they haven't done it all since 1993]

They beat the Penguins 4 times in the streak, before Pittsburgh
would break the spell on February 21, 1982 [4-3]

After losing to Pittsburgh, they went 7-0-1 in their next 8
[7-0-2 in their next 9]. Their 24 [and 25] game stretches were
22-1-1 [and 22-1-2].

THE STREAK:

21-Jan-82 Vs Pittsburgh 6 1 W
23-Jan-82 Vs New York 6 1 W
26-Jan-82 Vs Pittsburgh 9 2 W
27-Jan-82 @ Pittsburgh 6 3 W
30-Jan-82 Vs Minnesota 4 2 W
02-Feb-82 Vs Washington 7 6 W
04-Feb-82 @ Washington 5 2 W
06-Feb-82 Vs Detroit 6 2 W
07-Feb-82 @ Buffalo 7 3 W
11-Feb-82 @ Chicago 8 2 W
13-Feb-82 Vs Philadelphia 8 2 W
14-Feb-82 @ Hartford 9 1 W
16-Feb-82 Vs Pittsburgh 6 2 W
18-Feb-82 @ Philadelphia 7 4 W
20-Feb-82 Vs Colorado 3 2 W
21-Feb-82 @ Pittsburgh 3 4 L

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.