It Happened at the Coliseum … on APRIL 22nd

22 years ago tonight (1993) – The history books will tell you it was Ray Ferraro’s first OT goal of the series; the videotape (and Ferraro himself) say otherwise.  Regardless, Ferraro scored at 4:46 of overtime as the Isles grabbed a 2-1 lead over Washington with a 4-3 win in Game 3 of their Patrick Division semifinal series.  It was the Isles' 27th win in 34 all-time overtime games.

Here's Ray with Stan Fischler late in the 92-93 regular season

Steve Thomas had given the Isles a 1-0 lead late in the first period but Randy Burridge evened it before the session ended. Goals by Bobby Carpenter in the 2^nd period and Pat Elyniuk in the third gave the Capitals a 3-1 lead with less than 10 minutes to play.

Thomas scored again with 8:49 to play to cut the lead in half but Washington was still nursing the 1-goal lead as the game entered the final minute of regulation.

With Glenn Healy on the bench, Pierre Turgeon tied the game with 43 seconds to play in regulation with his third goal of the series.  "You want to come up big when you have to come up big", Turgeon told the NY Times' Joe Lapointe.

Overtime last a lot longer than it did this past Sunday, but really not all that long – as Ferraro beat Rick Tabaracci to give the Isles the lead in the series.

It should have been his second consecutive overtime goal, but the goal that Ferraro scored two nights earlier was credited to Brian Mullen.  The Times story notes:

 "When they won Game 2 in double overtime Tuesday night in Washington, Ferraro appeared to have scored the winner, but Brian Mullen was given credit. This time, there was no doubt."The guys were saying that Mully might have touched this one, too," Ferraro said, joking. "Our team doesn't quit, we have a lot of grit. A playoff overtime goal, there's nothing better than that. There's nothing you'd rather be doing than playing in the overtime of the Stanley Cup playoffs."

The Isles came out of this game with a slew of injuries -- Pat Flatley suffered a corneal abrasion when he was butt-ended by Dale Hunter (Flatley would miss a period and a half and then returned to the game).  Benoit Hogue was injured by a Kevin Hatcher slash (he also returned); Rich Pilon took a puck to the throat off the stick of Al Iafrate.

Here's the complete game-- The overtime goal is at about the 2 hr, 33 minute mark.

Two nights later, Ferraro would score in overtime again and should have been credited as the only player in NHL history to score overtime game winners in three consecutive games – and the only player since Rocket Richard (1951) to score three OT goal in a Playoff Year.

Ferraro told the story to NHL Network for "Fort Neverlose":   http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=798781

The Isles would not score again in overtime at the Coliseum again after Ferraro's goals in win games 3 and 4 until John Tavares did so on Sunday. 

Also on this date: (1976) – Clark Gillies scored the series-clinching goal at 5:58 of the third period, breaking a 2-2 tie as the Isles eliminated the Buffalo Sabres with a 3-2 victory in game 6.  The Isles, who won the series 4 games to 2, advanced to face the high-flying Montreal Canadiens in the semi-finals.

All-time, the Isles have played one regular season and three playoff games on April 22nd at the Coliseum; they have compiled a 0-1-0 regular season and 2-1 playoff record on this date at 1255 Hempstead Turnpike in Uniondale.