Road to the Cup - April 21, 1980 -- Boston 4, Isles 3 (OT) (Isles lead best-of-7 series 3-1)

40 Years Ago Tonight...

By Eric Hornick

Game 4

Boston 4, Isles 3 (OT)

he Islanders were ready to sweep the Bruins and move on to the semi-finals, but Terry O’Reilly had other ideas. O’Reilly scored at 17:13 of overtime as the Bruins defeated the Isles 4-3 to cut the Isles lead to 3 games to 1.

Ray Bourque had given the Bruins a 1-0 lead, but Mike Bossy, returning to the lineup after missing five games with an injury scored twice for the Isles to turn the advantage in the Isles’ favor thru 40 minutes.

Peter McNab, who had a big series, tied the score for the Bruins early in the third but when Clark Gillies scored with 6:20 to play it looked like the Isles were poised to advance.

With Gerry Cheevers on the bench, a former Ranger, Rick Middleton, tied the game at a familiar time to Islander fans: 19:40 of the third.  The Isles were outshot 32-17 through regulation but turned the tables in overtime, outshooting the Bruins 13-7.  However, O’Reilly’s goal gave the Bruins the win.

It was the Isles' only home playoff overtime in the Cup era; they wouldn’t lose another home playoff game in overtime for 13 years.

The Scoring:

1st Period

09:21 BOS Ray Bourque (2) Peter McNab, Brad McCrimmon

12:03 NYI Mike Bossy (2) Bryan Trottier, Stefan Persson

2nd Period

08:18 NYI PP Mike Bossy (3) Bryan Trottier, Clark Gillies

3rd Period

03:09 BOS Peter McNab (7) Terry O'Reilly, Don Marcotte

13:20 NYI Clark Gillies (3) Butch Goring, Dave Langevin

19:40 BOS Rick Middleton (4) Terry O'Reilly, Brad Park

1st OT Period

17:13 BOS Terry O'Reilly (3) Peter McNab, Dick Redmond

The Series:

Game 1: Isles 2, Boston 1 (OT)

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

Game 4: Boston 4, Isles 3 (OT)

Game 5: At Boston April 22

(Isles lead series, 3-1)

Mini-Skinny: 

The Isles were outshot 39-30....  Billy Smith suffered his first loss of the post-season, dropping to 6-1 in the playoffs.. There was only one fight (Bobby Nystrom vs. Brad McCrimmon). McCrimmon later served as an Islander assistant; he was killed in the 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash.... The loss ended a six-game Islander winning streak in overtime, dating back to Lanny McDonald (TOR) defeating the Isles in game 7 in 1978 in the only Game 7 the Isles have ever hosted.

Overtime is (Usually) 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) 

2nd round vs Bos: Game 4 (L 4-3 O'Reilly 17:13) 

Isles Scoring Leaders thru 8 Games

Bryan Trottier 6-8-14

John Tonelli 4-5-9

Bob Bourne 5-4-9

Isles +/- Leaders thru 8 Games

Gord Lane +7

Bryan Trottier +7

Dave Langevin +7

Isles Penalty Minute Leaders thru 8 Games

Garry Howatt 57

Duane Sutter 41

Clark Gillies 39

The Bruins had life; at least for 24 hours.  It was up to the Islanders to extinguish that the following night in Boston. We'll tell that story on Wednesday, the 40th anniversary of Game 5.