Yo Flyers, it can be done
ONLY TWO NHL TEAMS have ever come back from the same 3-0 deficit the Flyers and coach John Stevens face beginning tonight. The 1942 Maple Leafs were the first.
For the Red Wings, the team that gagged, it all went wrong when the coach jumped on the ice and went after the referee.
It was the 1942 Stanley Cup finals and Detroit, holding a 3-0 series lead, trailed by a goal late in Game 4. There was less than 2 minutes left when referee Mel Harwood
whistled consecutive penalties on Red Wings players Eddie Wares and Don Grosso.
That's when Detroit coach Jack Adams lost his mind and the Red Wings began the greatest collapse in NHL history.
The Leafs escaped with the win and NHL
president Frank Calder subsequently suspended Adams for the rest of the series. Detroit never
recovered and was drubbed in Game 5, 9-3. Toronto finished off the Wings with victories of 3-0 and 3-1 in the final two games.
The 1975 Islanders were the other team to
overcome a 3-0 deficit - and they darn near did it twice.
New York had allowed 14 goals in the first
three games against Pittsburgh in the quarterfinal round, but rallied behind backup goalie Chico Resch to stun the Penguins. Resch, at one point during the comeback, kissed the goal post after
a fortuitous bounce went the Isles' way.
The Islanders won the series when captain
Ed Westfall, who scored the first goal in franchise history three seasons earlier, scored late in Game 7 for a 1-0 win in Pittsburgh.
New York rebounded from a 3-0 deficit in the next round against the Flyers, but lost that
Game 7 in Philadelphia, 4-1.
Westfall attempted to neutralize a Flyers good-luck charm by presenting legendary singer Kate Smith with a bouquet of yellow roses before the game.
The ploy didn't work and the Flyers went on to win their second - and last - Stanley Cup championship 2 weeks later. *
- Ed Barkowitz
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