It Happened at the Coliseum ... on March 5th

For Isles fans of a certain age, Ziggy Palffy was their first Islander star. 

23 years ago this week, Ziggy was the hottest player in the NHL, as this edition of It Happened explains...

It Happened at the Coliseum … on MARCH 5th

(1996) – Zigmund Palffy scored three goals for his second consecutive hat trick as the Isles defeated the Boston Bruins 5-3.  The win snapped a 4-game losing streak for the Isles.

Palffy told Newsday’s Jim Smith:  "I'm not doing it myself. If you score goals, you need a lot of help . . . I have good guys beside me. I'm getting nice passes."   However, Palffy’s coach-general manager, Mike Milbury knew that he had something special going: “He's fun to watch. He's a blossoming star . . . Your team has to have success. That's when you're a star - when you can carry a team to wins. The league is littered with the Mike Bullards who have great stats. But I think Ziggy's going to be a star."

Palffy became the only Islander not named Mike Bossy to record a hat trick in consecutive games (Bossy did it twice).  He had spent some of his pre-game preparation watching tapes of Bossy, "It's not like I have to do it the same way. I'm just watching to learn. I watch tapes of Mike Bossy flying around the tops of the circles and snapping shots at the net." 

Palffy’s hat trick goal broke a 3-3 tie at 5:47 of the third period and it gave Ziggy, who had also assisted on a Wendel Clark goal a 4-point game.  Dan Plante added a late goal for the final margin, spoiling the 1,000^th NHL game of Boston’s Joe Mullen.

I can't find any video of this game, but here's the first of the two consecutive hat tricks, scored two days earlier.  Howie Rose and Eddie Westfall had the call on SportsChannel NY.

Also on this date: (2011) – Andrew MacDonald scored two goals and Al Montoya made 21 saves as the Isles beat St. Louis 5-2. 
Here are the highlights from MSG+ with Howie and Butch.

Also on this date: (2013) - Radek Martinek scored his first goal for the Islanders in nearly two years and it turned out to be the game-winning goal as Evgeni Nabokov made 29 saves and the Islanders ended Montreal’s 11-game point streak (8-0-3) with a 6-3 win over the Canadiens.

I have video of that one too: 

All-time, the Isles have played nine March 5th games at the Coliseum and finish with a 5-4-0 record on this date at 1255 Hempstead Turnpike in Uniondale.