Road to the Cup - April 17, 1980 -- Isles 5, Boston 4 (OT) (Isles lead best-of-7 series 2-0)

40 Years Ago Tonight...

By Eric Hornick

Game 2
Isles 5, Boston 4 (OT)

In one of the most memorable games of the Cup era, Bob Bourne scored 1:24 into overtime to break a 4-4 tie as the Isles took a 2-0 lead in their quarterfinal series with the Boston Bruins.

The second game in Boston was punctuated by a bench-clearing brawl at the end of the first period, following four other fights earlier in the period, including two between Clark Gillies and Terry O'Reilly.

The first period ended with a total of 248 penalty minutes (124 on each team) ; the 248 combined minutes remains a record to this day.  Only the Rangers (125 on 4/9/1981 in LA) have ever had more.  Each team had only 13 players available past the first period as Bob Lorimer, Garry Howatt, Gord Lane, Duane Sutter, Al Secord, Wayne Cashman, Stan Jonathan and a Bruin defenseman named Mike Milbury were all ejected.

It was the only time in the Cup era that the Isles played consecutive games that went to overtime and the Isles needed just 2:26 of extra time to win the two games.   It wouldn't be the last time that Gillies and Bourne would be tied together; their children (Brianna Gillies and Justin Bourne) were married in 2011.

Here's the entire game, as broadcast on TV-38 in Boston:

Here's the fight with 7 seconds to play in the first period, that preceded the large brawl (from Steve Albert and Ed Westfall on WOR).  Mike Milbury is yapping, but it's the second bout of O'Reilly and Gillies.

And here's the Islander call of the brawl that followed:

And one more -- here are the two goals scored 15 seconds apart as the game goes from 3-3 to 4-4 in a hurry:

Here's the winning goal, as called by Steve Albert and Ed Westfall on WOR.

The Scoring:

1st Period
16:08 NYI Bryan Trottier (4) Ken Morrow, Bob Bourne

2nd Period
01:32 BOS Rick Smith (1) Rick Middleton
10:40 NYI John Tonelli (3) Stefan Persson
12:00 BOS Brad McCrimmon (1) Dick Redmond, Dwight Foster
14:33 NYI SH Lorne Henning (1) Bryan Trottier, Denis Potvin
16:55 BOS Brad Park (3)

3rd Period
10:51 BOS Bob Miller (3) Ray Bourque, Don Marcotte
11:06 NYI Bob Nystrom (2) John Tonelli, Bryan Trottier

Overtime
01:24 NYI Bob Bourne (4)

The Series:

Game 1: Isles 2, Boston 1 (OT)

Game 2: Isles 5, Boston 4 (OT)
Game 3: At Isles 4/19

Game 4: At Isles 4/21

(Isles lead series, 1-0)

Mini-Skinny: 

The Isles were outshot 33-23; it was the first time in the playoffs that they had been outshot...  Billy Smith improved to 5-0 in the playoffs, besting Gerry Cheevers....This was the only OT goal in Bob Bourne's playoff career...It was the fifth game in six nights for Boston...There were only three minor penalties called in the final two periods; the 254 combined penalty minutes set a Stanley Cup record at the time (it's now third); the Isles' 128 was the most-ever at the time (it's now tied-7th)...The Isles didn't win two regular seasons in Boston in a regular season until 1999-2000 but did it in 24 hours in the playoffs...Neither team led for more than six minutes at a time as there were four ties;  Bob Nystrom forced overtime with a goal just 15 seconds after Bob Miller put the Bruins ahead...Lorne Henning's goal was his first of three in the 1980 playoffs; all three were shorthanded.  Henning is one of only six players in Stanley Cup history to score three shorthanded goals in a playoff year.

Overtime is Our Time!

1st round vs LA : Game 3  (W 4-3 Morrow 6:55)

2nd round vs Bos: Game 1 (W 2-1 Gillies 1:02)

2nd round vs Bos: Game 2 (W 5-4 Bourne 1:24) 

The Isles were in control of the series and heading back to Long Island.  We'll tell that story on Sunday, the 40th anniversary of Game 3.