Maven's Memories: Glenn Resch, The Game I'll Never Forget

Are you kidding me?
Trying to pick a game that I'll never forget is like looking up at the evening sky and picking out my favorite star.
So, so many.

My galaxy is filled with gleaming moments for a pure and simple reason. After all, I played hockey since I was knee-high to a grasshopper and that goes for the freezing cold outdoor rinks in my native Saskatchewan.
But I know that it's the NHL that interests you and -- the fact of the matter is -- that some of my favorite years were spent with the Islanders.
I had paid my dues; that's for sure. In college, I played a heck of a lot at the University of Duluth, for the Bulldogs. After college, I worked hard in the minors. First, Muskegon, then New Haven and, finally, Fort Worth before Bill Torrey invited me to Uniondale for a cup of coffee in 1973-74.
I liked the taste of it and Bow Tie Bill liked my last season in the minors enough to bring me back to Uniondale as a full-timer in the fall of 1974. That was the start of my sharing the crease with Bill Smith.
Personality-wise, we may have seemed like The Odd Couple but we got along as well as any two goalies could; maybe better than most. What mattered most of all was that we got the Isles into the playoffs for the first time.
As it happened nobody thought we'd get past the first round because, right off the bat, we played the Rangers in a best-of-three series. They had a very good team and everyone thought they'd sweep us in two straight.

But we fooled the critics and; beat them in the first game at the Garden and beat them again in the deciding third game at MSG. It was quite an upset and just might have gotten us so excited we lost the first three games to Pittsburgh in the Second Round.
Smitty was the guy who won the Rangers series for us and -- as a result -- he deserved to face the Penguins. No question, Radar made the right move but the team just wasn't playing well for whatever reason.
Just to shake things up after our third-straight loss, Al decided to make a goalie change and that put me, the rookie, into the playoff pressure cooker. Radar also put pressure on the rest of the team.
He got the guys together and said, "If any of you do not think we can win this series, you have my permission to leave now."
Radar's pep talk worked and nobody walked out on the club. The next thing you know we won Games Four, Five and Six. So, now the series is tied at three wins apiece with the deciding game on April 26, 1975 in Pitt.
MAVEN'S MEMORIES
WRITTEN COVERAGE
Denis Potvin's Road to the Isles
Ziggy Palffy, Underrated Islanders Hero
Bill Torrey's Origin Story
The Heals and Flats Show
1993 Run Ends in Montreal
Unusual Draft of 1979
Isles Upset Pens in 1993
Prelude to Penguins Upset
Isles Beat Caps in 1993
Maven's Haven
By this time, the Pittsburgh media got on the home team's case. "You got one game to win," one of the Penguins reporters said, "You mean to tell me that you can't even beat the Islanders?"
One of the Pittsburgh players went right back at him and snapped, "Sure, we can. Here's how we're gonna do it."
But they didn't!
As battles go, this seventh game was filled with melodrama. For starters, there was a fight. Not even three minutes had been played when our big left wing, Clark Gillies went at it with the Penguins' Bob Paradise.
One penalty followed another in that first period and yet another fight broke out with less than three minutes left. My defense partner Dave Lewis tossed punches with Bob (Battleship) Kelly.
They got majors and at the period's final buzzer our tough little blue-liner, Gerry Hart battled with Lowell MacDonald. They got off easy with a pair of minors.
What mattered is that nobody had put the puck past me and, likewise, Gary Inness, so far was pitching a no-goal-er against us.
Meanwhile, cooler heads prevailed in the second period. Referee Wally Harris only called three penalties, two for them and one for us. But still there was no score.
By this time I figured that the longer we played, the better our chances. After winning those three straight games, our confidence had soared. Meanwhile, the Penguins were on the spot since they were supposed to beat us; same as the Rangers were supposed to beat us.
Right now, I have to give some of my guys credit. No way I could have gone so far -- three-straight playoff wins and two periods of shutout hockey -- without help from my buddies.
Bert Marshall and Denis Potvin were especially strong on defense and my forwards were backchecking like wild. On top of that, Lady Luck was on my side right in the first period.
First Syl Apps (Junior) took a shot that hit me in the mask and bounded out of danger. Then, Jean Pronovost did virtually the same thing. I'll bet any of the two would have been goals had they not hit my mask.
So, now we're into the third period, still zip-zip, when our Gary Howatt gets hit with a penalty just short of the six minute mark. Fortunately, our penalty-killers did their job and we got out of that hole still OK.
But that wasn't the end of our close calls. A bit later, their best forward, Pierre Larouche, broke free; one-on-one with me, but being pursued by Denis Potvin.
I had to figure my strategy but the next thing I knew, Pierre put on the brakes. He was hoping that I would commit myself. No way I commit anything.
Meantime, Denis caught up to him, slowed down Larouche even more and now I made my move. I came out, poke-checked the puck -- a la Hall of Famer Johnny Bower -- and he was UN-lucky Pierre without even a shot!

Looking backward, I'd have to say that the sequence I just described was one of two turning points in the game. The second one came shortly after Larouche's breakaway.
This time we went on the attack and forced the puck into the Penguins' end of the rink. Our captain, Eddie Westfall, led the charge and wound up in the corner as we got control of the puck.
Meanwhile, Bert Marshall stationed himself at the blueline awaiting the possibility of a pass. Sure enough, the puck skimmed to Bert and he had to make a quick decision.
Of course, he could have taken a shot, but he saw that Westfall had moved out of the corner. Since Bert never had an overpowering shot, Marshall figured his best bet was to get the rubber to Eddie; which he did.
Eighteen -- our nickname for the captain -- instantly knew he had a scoring chance. From about 20 feet out, Westfall took a backhand shot. As a rule, backhanders tend to be in hockey like a knuckleball is to a batter in baseball.
Backhanders are hard to figure and that's the kind of shot that beat Inness. Eighteen had put it in the perfect spot -- top of the net, inside corner. After the game, reporters asked Eddie if he had specially picked that spot.
He laughed. "No," Westfall said, "I didn't pick the exact spot; I just fired away."
Our go-ahead goal was scored at 14:42 of the third period and that meant I had to stop the Penguins for a little over five minutes.
Our checkers went to work, and we just suffocated the Penguins attack and came out of it with the 1-0 victory.
For us, this was borderline miraculous. Up until that point only one team, the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, ever had come from behind a three-game deficit in the playoffs to win four-straight.
And we were the first American-based team to do so. For me. the shutout was the capper to my rookie NHL season plus, it sent us to the third round against the Flyers.
Darn if we didn't go down three games again; and come back to win three. As for Game Seven in Philly.
Well, that's another story!