Easter Sunday might soon become well known for Islander miracles as much as it is colored eggs. Where were you Easter Sunday morning 20 years ago? I remember being a groggy eyed 5 year old, not really understanding the significance of a hockey playoff game, but just remember watching. Dad kept saying we wouldn’t go home until the game was over. Finally, in the fourth overtime and the wee hours of Sunday morning, Pat LaFontaine ripped a slapper from inside the blueline and sealed the deal for the Isles against the Caps in what was known as the Easter Epic, one of the more famous NHL playoff overtime games.
Fast forward to 2007, and maybe you could call it the Easter Epipany in New Jersey. The Islanders were looking to grab the last spot in the playoffs in the East and would need a win in New Jersey to do it. To be alive in the last game of the year was really nothing short of a miracle.
Consider this – Entering the week, for the Islanders to make the playoffs they would have to run the table – beat the Rangers, Maple Leafs, Flyers and Devils. They would need the Rangers to beat the Canadiens and would need the Maple Leafs to turn around and beat thte Canadiens. They needed a shootout to beat the Rangers, then the fans bittersweetly watched as the Rangers clinched in their next game against Montreal. All of Long Island was fixated on Toronto when the Habs and Leafs met in probably the game of the year. And in a wild one, Toronto pulled through for the Isles. Now all that was left to do was beat the Devils.
Richard Park scored in the first and third to give the Isles a 2-0 lead, before John Madden answered back with 2 of his own, the last one a backbreaker when he tied the game with 0.8 seconds. With all the pressure on New York, they got through the five minutes of overtime, and went to a shootout. Miro Satan and Viktor Kozlov did their part and then it was down to Sergei Brylin and Wade Dubielewicz.
Wade who?
The little goalie that could, all 5’9 of him who has toiled in the AHL all of the sudden became the Isles MVP. Oh, and is this week’s NHL First Star of the Week.
Consider even the most diehard of fan would have a hard time believing after back to back spankings by Buffalo and Ottawa two weeks ago, and then having to run the table AND need three teams to cooperate with them, making the 2007 playoffs was nothing short of miraculous for the Islanders.
Credit goes to Ted Nolan for keeping the team focused. He’s done just an absolute marvelous job with this Isles club this year. For much of the year, this has been a team playing well over and above expectations and maybe even their talents you could say. For a guy like Dubielewicz to come into this type of situation and right what was seemlingly a plane nosediving out of control, he has most likely earned himself a backup job on Long Island next year.
This is a team that has worked hard and overcome losing their MVP goaltender and best defenseman to injuries that quite simply earned the right to get to the playoffs. It might be a short ride against Buffalo, but it’s a ride they earned to get.
