It Happened at the Coliseum … on APRIL 11th

38 years ago tonight (1977) – Fresh off their first round sweep of Chicago, the Isles began a 4-game sweep of Buffalo with a 4-2 win in game 1.

Garry Howatt and Billy Harris gave the Isles a 2-0 lead in the first period but Gilbert Perreault and Rene Robert (two-thirds of the famed French Connection line) scored 2:01 apart in the second to tie the game.

The Sabres had barely celebrated the tie score when Clark Gillies notched the winning goal just 25 seconds later.  Jude Drouin added a goal late in the 2^nd period for the final margin of victory.

Billy Smith finished with 37 saves in recording the victory.

Also on this date: (2010) – John Tavares’ rookie season came to a close in a wild 6-5 overtime defeat to Pittsburgh.

The Penguins held three separate 3-goal leads (3-0, 4-1, and 5-2) but could not hold them.  Sidney Crosby scored twice for the Pens, giving him 51 goals on the season; Crosby, who had a hand in the first 5 Penguin goals, also had three assists as he finished the campaign 51-58-109.

John Tavares scored twice for the Isles, including the tying goal with less than 5 minutes to play that forced overtime.  Matt Moulson recorded his 30^th goal of the season while Kyle Okposo and Jon Sim also tallied for the Isles.

Jordan Leopold scored the overtime winner for Pittsburgh as Tavares finished his rookie campaign 24-30-54. 

Here are the highlights (from the Penguins broadcast with Terry Steigerwald):

Also on this date (1975/1980) – two important games, neither of which happened on Long Island.  In 1975, Jean-Paul Parise and 11 seconds were married forever in Islander lore as the Isles eliminated the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. 



Here's what Newsday looked like the next morning:

 Five years later, Ken Morrow had arguably the most important unsung goal in Isles history as his overtime goal gave the Isles a 4-3 win in Los Angeles in game 3 of the best-of-5 series.  Had the Isles lost that series there obviously would have not been a Stanley Cup in 1980 and who knows what the composition of the team would have looked like in later years.

Here's a 1982 profile on Morrow -- before he scored the Cup clincher in 1983 and the goal to beat the Rangers in 1984.

All-time, the Isles have played three regular season and three playoff games on April 11th at the Coliseum; they have compiled a 1-1-1 regular season and 1-2 playoff record on this date at 1255 Hempstead Turnpike in Uniondale.  The final April 11th home game is tonight –as the Isles host Columbus at 7:00. Make sure you’re there for the 1,665^th and final regular season game in Nassau County.