Hope For Cinderella Panthers Remains; So Say the 1975 Islanders

Florida's Cinderella Express of the 2023 playoffs is one station away from Pumpkinville as it once was in the first round against the Bruins -- and then got on the fast track.

Can they do it again after Saturday night’s 3-2 loss to the Knights in Sunrise?

Coach Paul Maurice can start singing a chorus of "We Did It Before And We Can Do It Again!" That might help.

Or, they can turn the National Hockey League history book back 48 years to the spring of 1975.

NHL archives tell us that the New York Islanders -- playing Pittsburgh -- were on the same track to oblivion. What's more, they switched to "Express" in Game Five; something the Panthers must do to avoid the Pumpkin Department.

Here's how it went for the Islanders 'way back then.

Game Five -- same as Game Five on Tuesday for Florida -- was on the road; in hostile Pittsburgh.

Aware that his Islanders were barely alive in the series and faced near-impossible odds, general manager Bill Torrey decided to try something that might be useful to Cats' coach Maurice.

Good luck charms.

For starters Bowtie Bill changed airlines for the flight to Steel City.

"Bill didn't stop there," recalled coach Al Arbour. "His next move was to book us into a hotel we hadn't used for a couple of years."

"I was going to do whatever it took," said Torrey.

"Whatever it took" actually worked considering that previous two Game Five's the Islanders had never won in Pittsburgh. They triumphed 4-2 while goalie Chico Resch produced 36 saves.

The luck didn't stop there.

With Penguins down by a goal but pressing for a tie in the game's dying moments, the desperate Pittsburghers pulled their goalie Garry Inness.

Isles dependable forward Jude Drouin snared the puck in his own zone but the poor fellow was 198 feet away from the home team's empty crease.

"I felt it was worth a try," Drouin later asserted, "So I let the puck go."

Bullseye!

Things were looking up in so many ways that even Bowtie Bill began wondering what good charm would next boost his team. Then, it came in the way of a springy New York Scene.

Tim Moriarty, who was covering the playoffs for Newsday, was on the team bus carrying the Isles from LaGuardia Field to the Coliseum, noticed clumps of bright yellow forsythia blooming on the shoulders of the parkway.

So did team publicist Hawley Chester III who took it as a sign of more good fortune.

"Check it out," yelled Chester. "The forsythia are blooming. Did you ever think this team would be playing hockey when the forsythia bloomed?"

Among other things blooming at the time was New York's goalkeeping.

Chico Resch had replaced Bill Smith as the netminding man of the hour, and his game progressively improved.

"Let's face it," said Resch, "when you're one game away from vacation and in a 0-3 hole, I'm feeling more important than ever."

The Islanders' Game Five victory gave the boys a feeling that Lady Luck had been claimed on waivers and was their seventh player on the ice. This much was certain; they now were down only 3-2, heading home and beginning to feel confident.

"You could see everything turned," said captain Ed Westfall. "The Penguins no longer were playing with the air that they were the team to beat. And we weren't thinking like a beaten team. We just kept saying, 'Let's keep trying and don't change a thing.'"

Covering the series for SportsChannel, I couldn't help but get caught up with the comeback euphoria. Player upon player seemed to be convinced that Torrey's good luck charms were helping the isles.

Resch figured that Lady Luck had put her magic wand on his goal posts. In Game Six both Ron Schock and Pierre Larouche of Pittsburgh had beaten him on shots but in both instances, the puck clanged against the goal pipe and was smothered by Resch.

Here's how Chico's reaction was recorded in the Islanders Official 25th

Anniversary History:

"Almost instantly, Resch lifted himself off the ice, pressed his mask to the pipe and pursed his lips in a kiss. The capacity crowd of nearly 15,000 roared in delight, as did the photographers who sent the photo coast-to-coast."

The Islanders won Game Six 4-1 and the "luck" theme now had gone over to the Penguins dressing room; only the wrong way.

"Luck has gone from us to them," said Penguins forward Syl Apps, Jr.

"The Penguins were psyched by Resch," wrote Associated Press reporter Barry Wilner in his book, The New York Islanders, Countdown To A Dynasty.

The Orange and Blue won Game Six, 4-1, tying the series at three wins apiece. They completed their Cinderella story by defeating the Penguins 2-0 in Game Seven.

"Everybody was so proud of the fact that we did not quit," concluded Clark Gillies. "We had enough pride and character to keep plugging."

On Tuesday night in Vegas we'll find out if the Panthers own enough of that pride and character to keep this Stanley Cup Final going.

Maybe if Lady Luck becomes the Cats seventh player, it could happen!