15 Facts from the Islanders' 15-Game Winning Streak

There are plenty of remarkable achievements from the New York Islanders dynasty.

The postseason feats - four-straight Stanley Cups and an NHL-record 19-straight playoff series wins - rightfully headline the marquee, but during the regular season, there may not be a more impressive run than the Islanders 15-game winning streak from Jan. 21 to Feb. 20, 1982.

"During that stretch we didn't feel we could lose," John Tonelli told the Talkin' Isles podcast. "We were definitely a machine; everybody was contributing and it was a lot of fun."

To celebrate the 44th anniversary, NewYorkIslanders.com breaks it down with 15 facts from a historic 15-game run.

1. The Islanders scored 97 goals over the 15 games, 24 more goals than the Montreal Canadiens, the team with the second most goals in the league during that stretch. The Isles scored six-or-more goals in 12 of the 15 contests and scored four-or-more in 14 of the 15.

2. In addition to scoring a boatload of goals, the Islanders also allowed the fewest goals against, just 37 over the 15-game run.

3. Eight Islanders averaged at least a point-per-game during the streak: Mike Bossy (33 points), Bryan Trottier (31), Brent Sutter (27), John Tonelli (25), Clark Gillies (23), Duane Sutter (23), Denis Potvin (20) and Stefan Persson (15).

4. Bryan Trottier scored 19 goals during the streak, the most on the team and the league during that span. That includes a five-goal game on Feb. 13 in an 8-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. Trottier's 31 points were second on the team during that stretch, though his six game-winning goals doubled the next closest Islander.

5. Mike Bossy led the team with 33 points (10G, 23A) during the streak. That includes a five-point game (3G, 2A) in a 6-2 win over Detroit on Feb. 6. Bossy was on fire during a three-game stretch from Feb. 11-14, recording 13 points (3G, 10A) over that span. He had four-or-more points in each game, including five assists on the night Trottier scored five goals. Only Wayne Gretzky scored more than Bossy with 35 points during that stretch.

6. Brent Sutter scored 15 goals during the streak, averaging a goal-per-game pace. Sutter finished third in scoring with 27 points and was crucial in keeping the streak alive early on. Sutter broke a 2-2 tie in the third period of a 4-2 win over Minnesota on Jan. 30 and had a hat trick in a 7-6 win over Washington on Feb. 2. Sutter was sixth in league scoring during the streak.

7. When the Islanders were on, they were really on. On Jan. 26, the Islanders opened up a 6-0 lead in the first period in 9-2 win over Pittsburgh for their third win of the streak. Bob Nystrom recorded four points (2G, 2A) in the dominating win, while Clark Gillies added three points (1G, 2A).

8. There were some close calls along the way. The Islanders 14th win - a 7-4 victory over the Flyers - may have looked easy as a boxscore, but the Isles trailed 3-1 and 4-2 in the game. A pair of four-point games from Bossy (1G, 3A) and Tonelli (2G, 2A) helped the Islanders get through.

9. Billy Smith's .925 SV% led the league during the streak, while backup Roland Melanson posted a .916 SV%. Smith went 9-0-0, while Melanson went 6-0-0. Smith recorded a 2.09 GAA, while Melanson posted a 2.66 GAA.

10. The Islanders were not the only undefeated team during their winning streak. The Montreal Canadiens were a formidable 12-0-2 during the same time period. The Canadiens had won 10 consecutive games until former Islander goaltender Chico Resch and the Colorado Rockies earned a 3-3 tie with Montreal on February 16.

11. Defensemen Denis Potvin and Stefan Persson averaged a point-per-game during the streak, with Potvin racking up 20 points (5G, 15A) and Persson contributing 15 (2G, 13A). Potvin potted two game-winning goals and had three-straight three-point games from Feb. 7-13, a 7-3 win over Buffalo, an 8-2 win over Chicago and an 8-3 win over Philadelphia.

Persson was no slouch, recording a three-assist game in the first win of the streak, a 6-1 win over Pittsburgh where all but two players recorded a point, and a four-point game in a 7-6 win over Washington (win number six).

12. Clark Gillies had 23 points (10G, 13A) during the streak, despite only playing in 14 games. He recorded three-or-more points in five of those games, including back-to-back four-point games on Feb. 13 and 16 (wins 12 and 13, respectively).

13. All 15 wins occurred in regulation, which is an important distinction to Butch Goring. The 1993 Penguins hold the current record at 17 games, but two of them were won in overtime. The Columbus Blue Jackets won 16-straight games in 2016-17, but two were in a shootout and another in overtime.

"To me it's still the record that should be talked about because there was no overtime," Goring said on the Islanders radio pregame show on Jan. 27. "The streak Pittsburgh had two overtime wins in their unbeaten streak, so that to me is a great memory. That team at that time was really on a roll and there was no way to slow them down."

14. Goring was a player-assistant during the 1981-82 season, so he was behind the bench for a handful of games with Al Arbour. The Hall of Fame coach was worried that his team was peaking too early, so during the 9-1 beatdown vs Hartford on Feb. 14 (win number 12) he asked Goring to find a way to slow the Isles down.

"Al wasn't happy at the time because he always wanted his team to play really well in the last 20 games," Goring said. "I don't know how many coaches would have ever said that, 'can we slow these guys down?' but it was true and I said Al, you know as well as I do, they'll run out of this and you'll get your chance."

Tonelli remembers Arbour pulling the team aside before a practice and telling them not to get comfortable despite the record-setting streak.

"He told us, you guys aren't playing well enough to win the Stanley Cup, you have to wake up," Tonelli said. "That was his wake-up call to us to knock us down from that run, from that stretch of wins, to prepare us for the toughest part."

Safe to say, the Islanders received the message, rattling off their third-straight Cup that spring, sweeping the Wales Conference Final vs Quebec and the Stanley Cup Final against Vancouver.
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15. The 15th - and record-setting, breaking the 1929-30 Boston Bruins' mark of 14 - win came down to the wire. The Islanders were in a 2-2 tie with the Colorado Rockies in the third period, with Chico Resch doing his best to play spoiler in the Colorado crease.

Tonelli, who was fourth on the team with 25 points (7G, 18A) in 15 games, broke the deadlock in the final minute. It was Tonelli's third game-winning goal of the streak, which was second only to Trottier's six. We'll let the late-game hero take it from here:

"Chico played spectacular that day. He was not going to let us have it easy," Tonelli told Talkin' Isles. "I look back and talk about bounces and breaks you know, I think they had a bit of a line change and Trots grabbed it inside of our blueline. I was just coming on the ice and going up the left side and we had a little bit of room and Trots brought it inside the blueline, dropped it to me and I just let it go. That's all I did and was it a seeing-eye goal? Probably. It found a spot between a defenseman and Chico couldn't see it and it wound up between Chico's legs."

There was a bit of a hangover after the win. The Islanders streak ended the next day against the Pittsburgh Penguins, a team they'd beaten four times in the previous 15 games. The streak obviously couldn't last forever and after digging deep to win vs the Rockies, there was a natural letdown, according to Tonelli.

"It was tough going into Pittsburgh for game 16 because we might have had a bit of a letdown," Tonelli said. "Just enough that they could side door us and beat us, but we didn't think we could lose."