Road to the Cup - April 8, 1980 Isles 8, Los Angeles 1 (Isles lead best-of-5 series 1-0)

40 Years Ago Tonight...

By Eric Hornick

Bryan Trottier got the Isles’ first Cup run off to a good start, recording a hat trick as the Isles pounded Los Angeles 8-1.  Trottier’s hat included a pair of shorthanded goals in the second period; he joined Toronto’s Dave Keon as the only players in Stanley Cup history to score two shorties in a game and was the first player to ever do so in a period during the Stanley Cup playoffs (both records are now shared with many others).

The Scoring:

1st Period

05:46 NYI Bryan Trottier (1) Mike Bossy, Bob Bourne

18:07 NYI Wayne Merrick (1) John Tonelli, Denis Potvin

2nd Period

04:30 NYI SH Bryan Trottier (2)

10:19 NYI Mike Bossy (1) Bryan Trottier, Dave Langevin

11:29 NYI Bob Nystrom (1) John Tonelli, Wayne Merrick

14:14 NYI Gord Lane (1) Lorne Henning, Ken Morrow

19:20 NYI SH Bryan Trottier (3) Butch Goring

3rd Period

02:15 NYI Stefan Persson (1) Lorne Henning

19:20 LAK Robert Palmer (1) Steve Carlson, Dean Hopkins

The Series:

Game 1: Isles 8, Los Angeles 1

Game 2: April 9th at Coliseum

(Isles lead series 1-0)

Mini-Skinny:

It was the first time the Isles had scored 8 goals in a playoff game....The Isles outshot Los Angeles 34-24...It was the third hat trick in Isles playoff history (Billy Harris and Mike Bossy had the first two)....Billy Smith earned the win; Doug Keans allowed 7 goals on 20 shots in two periods for LA.  Mario Lessard mopped up...Every Islander (all 17 of them) was a plus; the 18-skater roster had not yet been established...Duane Sutter fought Mark Hardy in the third period; it was the first of his 12 major penalties during the four Stanley Cup winning seasons...This is the only playoff series ever between the teams.

The Isles set numerous club playoff records that that exist today:

• 5 goals in a period (since tied)
• 2 SH goals in a period (since tied)
• 2 SH goals by a player in a game (tied by Tom Fitzgerald in 1993).

Trottier remains the only Islander to score two SH goals in a playoff period.

The Road to the Cup was off to a fine start.  It would get very rocky just 24 hours later.