The Skinny on the Comeback (updated)

The Isles rallied from a 3-0 deficit to defeat the Minnesota Wild tonight 5-4 in St. Paul.

The complete Skinny is here: http://www.nyiskinny.com/2013/12/the-skinny-isles-5-minnesota-4.html

The last time that the Isles rallied from a deficit of at least 3 goals to win was on March 22, 1994 at the Coliseum when the Isles rallied from a 4-0 deficit for a 5-4 victory over Tampa Bay.

Ryan Strome was 9 months old.  Vladimir Malahov scored the winning goal in overtime for the Isles.

Several folks wrote to me about their memories about that game, which included Ron Hextall getting thrown out.  Hextall didn't start that game, he replaced Jamie McLennan after the 3rd Tampa goal.  Hextall was tossed after the following goal, which made it 4-0 Tampa.

The scoring (from the Hockey Summary Project):

First Period

1 - TB : Klima 24 (Hamrlik) (EV) 12:12 2 - TB : Savard 15 (Andersson, Creighton) (EV) 15:40

Second Period

3 - TB : Gratton 12 (Joseph) (PP) 2:55 4 - TB : Klima 25 (Cole, Chambers) (PP) 12:45 5 - NYI : Kurvers 7 (Malakhov, King) (PP) 17:44 6 - NYI : Kurvers 8 (Mcinnis, Hogue) (PP) 18:59

Third Period

7 - NYI : King 29 (Thomas, Turgeon) (EV) 11:15 8 - NYI : Thomas 37 (Turgeon, King) (PP) 15:16

Overtime

9 - NYI : Malakhov 8 (Turgeon, Mcinnis) (EV) 3:59

Shots On Goal

1 2 3 4 T Tampa Bay Lightning 10 12 9 2 33 New York Islanders 10 8 9 5 32

The good folks from Elias Sports Bureau came up with this nugget:
The win ended the Islanders' NHL-record 380-game winless streak in games in which they trailed by three goals or more. (Second-longest streak: 258 games by the Nordiques/Avalanche from March 1986 to January 1996.)


That game was of course at the Coliseum. However, with a little time on my hands this evening I needed to find out when was the last time it happened ON THE ROAD?

It turns out that the Isles actually earned points three times in March 1994 when the trailed by a 3 goal margin.  The other two were on the road:
March 12, 1994-- Trailed 3-0 in St. Louis; tied 5-5
March 4, 1994 -- Trailed 3-0 at MSG; tied 3-3 in the front end of a home-and-home.  (The Rangers would win the next night at the Coliseum on a late goal by Zubov for their first win on Long Island since 1989)

But before December 29, 2013, when was the last time the Isles won a game on the road that the they trailed by a 3-goal margin?  This one is hard to believe. It happened 26 years ago, on a Saturday night (11/21/1987) in Philadelphia.

New York Islanders 6 @ Philadelphia Flyers 4

First Period

1 - NYI : Kerr 9 (Lafontaine, King) (EV) 7:38 2 - PHI : Sinisalo 8 (Crossman, Mellanby) (PP) 8:40

Second Period

3 - PHI : Poulin 5 (Tocchet, Marsh) (EV) 0:38 4 - PHI : Samuelsson 1 (Huffman, Poulin) (EV) 8:00 5 - PHI : Zezel 4 (Crossman, Sinisalo) (PP) 12:15

Third Period

6 - NYI : Wood 9 (Trottier) (EV) 0:21 7 - NYI : Makela 7 (Jonsson, Potvin) (PP) 3:31 8 - NYI : Makela 8 (Kerr, Trottier) (EV) 6:26 9 - NYI : Bassen 4 (Lafontaine, Gilbert) (EV) 17:46 10 - NYI : Wood 10 (Lafontaine) (EV-EN) 19:58

Shots On Goal

1 2 3 T New York Islanders 8 13 14 35 Philadelphia Flyers 12 12 2 26

Of the 4 Islanders who scored in Minnesota, only one was even born.  Cal William Clutterbuck was 3 DAYS old.