The Oral History of the Isles Upset Over Pittsburgh in 1993

Amid the Islanders 50th anniversary season, there was another anniversary worth celebrating.

It's been 30 years since an underdog Islanders team shocked the hockey world by dethroning the two-time Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins in seven games.

For a generation of Islanders fans, the 1993 team was the high-water mark for success, the last team to reach the third round of the playoffs until 2020 and 2021, when the Isles reached the third round in back-to-back years.

ISLES HISTORY: THE 1990S

NewYorkIslanders.com caught up with members of that 1993 team to get their perspective.

The journey started in Washington, as the Islanders took on the Capitals in the Patrick Division Semi-Finals, a series the Islanders would ultimately take in six games.

The two teams were only separated by six points in the standings while the Islanders (87 points) were tied with the New Jersey Devils, the Isles' 335 goals for was the tiebreaker, helping to avoid a first-round matchup with Pittsburgh.

Ray Ferraro:

Once we clinched, the only thing we were worried about was, 'boy I hope we don't get Pittsburgh' because Pittsburgh won 17 in a row coming into the playoffs. The first game of the playoffs, Pittsburgh played in the afternoon, and we played at night. And Pittsburgh smashed New Jersey, they crushed them. And we were going to our game going, thank goodness that could have been us. And then we lost the first game anyway to Washington.

Benoit Hogue:

The first round, I remember, [Washington defenseman] Al Iafrate said 'Oh, they're just a steppingstone for us.'

Ferraro:

The next day we were going to the practice rink and Al kicked everybody off the bus except the players. He said, 'I don't know if you guys are happy to be here, but this isn't good enough. If you don't think we can win this series, get off the bus. If you think you need to practice today, practice. If you think you need a day off, take a day off, but we have to be better.' And then we won the next three games and went on to win. Al was so direct. Average isn't good enough. And we went on to win. For me it turned out to be the greatest month of my hockey life.

Glenn Healy:

Ray Ferraro had a series of a lifetime. So many big moments for Ray in that series and was the star.

NewYorkIslanders.com Ferraro scored eight goals in six games, including a pair of OT winners in Games 3 and 4, and a four-goal game in a losing effort in Game 5.

Ferraro:

We're up three games to one and we go to Washington, and we lose 6-4. That's the game I got four goals, which was crazy. Every time the puck fell down, it just fell on my stick, and I shot it in the net.

Unfortunately, the lasting image and legacy of the series win was Dale Hunter's cheap shot on Pierre Turgeon. After Turgeon scored to give the Islanders a 5-1 lead in Game Six, Hunter blindsided the Islanders superstar, hitting him into the boards during his celebration. Turgeon, who scored 132 points that season, suffered a separated shoulder, while Hunter was suspended 21 games to start the next season, the longest suspension in NHL history for an on-ice incident at the time.

Healy:

The striking blow was at the very end of the elimination game, Turgeon getting knocked out by Dale Hunter. And you know, he was our best player. He was our star. He was our our make it or break it guy. And once that happened, we knew that we were going to go into the next series minus Pierre Turgeon, who was our goal scorer, our power play guy, he played every role for us.

NewYorkIslanders.com: The Islanders were slated to take on the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round.

Mick Vukota:

There wasn't a sportswriter or an analyst that thought we wouldn't get swept. A couple of people threw us a bone and said that they might win a game when Pittsburgh gets comfortable. But nobody thought we would win. Not one.

Healy:

The Pittsburgh Penguins were a dynasty. They had everybody. [Ron] Francis. [Jaromir] Jagr. Oh, I forgot [Mario] Lemieux? Well, he was pretty good too. They had everybody.

We were rebuilding, and we were young. We had three young defensemen Dennis Vaske, Darius Kasparaitis and Vladimir Malakhov and we had some veterans like Tom Kurvers - rest in peace TK we miss you - and we were winging it. We were cutting our teeth. I was a young goaltender as well… All of us were saying we want to write our own script. We had a blank canvas. There was no pressure on us because we hadn't accomplished anything, so where's the pressure?

Pat Flatley:

We thought we were going do it right from the beginning. Al came into the dressing room before the series. He says, 'is there anyone on his team afraid to play against Mario Lemieux?' And he went around the room: Mick Vukota, Steve Thomas, Ray [Ferraro], and every player in the team said, 'I'm not.' Nobody was afraid. He goes, 'okay then because you're all going to play against him in this series. And we're going to beat this team.'"

NewYorkIslanders.com: The Islanders won Game One 3-2, getting a goal from Malakhov and a pair of shorthanded goals from Ferraro and Hogue.

Ferraro:

I scored one shorthanded goal in 1,258 NHL games, and however many playoff games I played, and it was in Game One. I took a penalty a couple of minutes into the first period and somebody else took a penalty right after me, so we were down five on three. I come out of the penalty box and the puck jumps over Larry Murphy's stick I get a breakaway and score. I wasn't killing the penalty. I was coming out of the box, but we still had a penalty. So that's the only shorthanded goal that I scored.

NewYorkIslanders.com: The Isles also caught a break, as Lemieux left the game early in the first period after a collision with Brad Dalgarno.

Brad Dalgarno:

I distinctly remember that hit on Lemieux in the neutral zone. I just squared up on him and honest to God, it just sounded like air came out of both of us when we hit each other. He was one big solid guy. I couldn't breathe for a second and I just went to the bench, ended my shift and then at the whistle I remember him going off for a bit. He was obviously struggling with back issues and other things but facing him in that neutral zone was a big thing that I could contribute at the time.

The Islanders made life hard on Lemieux during the series. Kasparaitis, then a rookie defenseman from Lithuania, didn't shy away from his rough-and-tumble style against the league MVP. Most famously, Kasparaitis punched Lemieux in Game Six at Nassau Coliseum, getting a couple of shots in on the Penguins captain in a 7-5 Islanders win.

Healy:

To have Darius Kasparaitis punch Mario Lemieux 50 times and they're still friends today, I don't know how he did it.

Darius Kasparaitis:

That was not my plan. I always play the game the same way, I still play the game the same way now being 50. Also, I didn't really care about who we played against. I played hard and it was just the moment in the game when Lemieux crosschecked me and then I just hit him back.

It was easy to be an underdog and go against big guys like that. It's easy to get yourself going before the games because you know, we have nothing to lose. That's why we had success against the Penguins because I feel like they were such a big favorites and we were just the pesky Islanders.

Ferraro:

Each time the series advances it's worse for Pittsburgh and better for us because there's no pressure on us. I don't remember feeling nervous in that series. We come back to New York and Tom Fitzgerald scores to shorthanded goals in the same penalty kill [in Game 4], like how is this even happening?

Vukota:

When Game 6 ended, I was checking character. If we won in Pittsburgh, we were going directly to Montreal, so I literally was going through guy's suit bags to see who brought one suit because that meant you were thinking 'I just need one suit, we go to Pittsburgh, we lose we come home.' I went through everybody's suit bags, and they all brought three because that meant we were going to Montreal.

Healy:

My recollection is the team didn't have a lot of faith in getting to Game 7 either. We flew out of two different airports. We didn't fly charter back then. It was commercial. There was a flight that left from LaGuardia and one that left from MacArthur. If you think that we didn't have the faith, I don't think ownership had faith in us either so put that in your pipe and smoke it. And then we met in Pittsburgh and said, 'okay, let's get at it.'

Pierre Turgeon:

Before Game 7, I went to Al Arbour and I said, 'can I just be on the bench? I just want to be on the bench.' He goes, 'Can you play?' I said, 'I probably can't, but I just want to be on the bench.'

Healy:

[Arbour] sat a chair in the middle of the room and he asked each player, starting with Pat Flatley, if we could just tie a shift with Mario Lemieux. Just tie the shift, and he went through the whole locker room and said, 'Ah, first period's over. Second period, Flatley, could you do another one?' Yes. And then it came down to all we have to do is win one shift, in Game 7 overtime.

Ferraro:

None of that happens without Heals having the month of his life. Somebody sent me a video of Game 7 in Pittsburgh a bunch of years ago. I had no idea Heals played as great as he did. I remember we had a 3-1 lead and we kicked it away late. I didn't know that Heals made 40-plus saves. I totally erased that from my mind. We don't do what we did in those playoffs without Glenn Healy.

Vukota:

There was a little meltdown in the third period, they tied it up and the place was insane. In the old Igloo you were down there and the floor beneath your feet was shaking. I remember a couple guys in the locker room, being like, that shouldn't happen and there was just a moment of low. I was like listen, if before the series started, we said let's fast forward to Game 7 overtime, one shot, one goal and we win - without Pierre Turgeon - we would have said absolutely.

There was silence in that room, and you could feel the energy, like just focus. This is zero-zero, one shot, one goal, we win, let's trade punches. Let's go. And I didn't know Al was in the room behind us and heard that. He snatched me up - and I mean for an older gentleman he still had a grip like when he grabbed you knew you were being held by someone. I'll never forget that. That was my fondest moment with Al.

Turgeon:

We get to overtime and the shift before David scored Al calls my name he goes, 'you're going up.' I'm looking at him, 'I'm going up?' He goes, 'you're gonna.' I had a half a shoulder, you know, I wasn't ready to play, but I was full of energy, and I could see the tempo of the game going down. I feel like okay, maybe I could go on the ice and do it.

Ferraro:

That play there was a turnover and it's a two on one. And as the puck is going up the ice, I know David's on my right and is a left shot. I don't recall for one second thinking I was going to shoot.

As we're going in, I mean that pass was mine. I love that pass, the little feather pass over the defenseman's stick. David shot gets [Tom] Barasso moving too far, he loses the angle, and it goes over his glove. And when I jumped on David in the corner, I could hear Glenn Healy yelling from the far end of the rink. The rink was so quiet. We got buried, David and I, with everybody jumping on the pile, and I could hear Heals yelling from the end of the rink. The greatest moment I've had a part of in my career was that play, that pass, that goal and that celebration. It was amazing.

THE AFTERMATH:

Healy:

I recall after the game asking Al with Pat Flatley if we could buy a case or two of beer to celebrate the big win and Al told me yes, you're allowed two cases of beer. No problem. We stopped at a local establishment, and we bought seven cases of beer. And of course, we stick them up through the back emergency exit the back of the bus and then Pat and I politely walk on with our two cases. And as we're walking on Radar said, 'I told you two cases not seven. I saw him going in the window.' He didn't miss a thing.

Flatley:

Al just believed and Scotty Bowman, from what I understand, says it was one of the worst losses he's experienced because they clearly were more talented team than us. We got the bounces, and our teamwork and belief overcame their talent at that point.

Ferraro:

You could put that lineup on the board against Pittsburgh's lineup for the next 50 years and take the team names off and nobody would pick our lineup over theirs. Nobody, except we won. That's that sport, and that's just why you play.

NewYorkIslanders.com: Ultimately the Islanders run ended in the conference finals against the Montreal Canadiens, with the Isles falling in five games.

Kasparaitis:

I probably can name all the players on the team on the roster because that's how close we were at that time, and the thing is, it was a very special team.

Dalgarno:

The beautiful thing about that is I, like everyone from that team, cherishes that year. We all watch the guys on TV that seem to be in the Cup final every year and it just seems so easy and natural. But for anyone that's played any amount of time in the NHL, it's not easy, and it's rare. And there's a lot of guys that never get even a sniff at it. And if it hadn't been for that year, I would have had a career that - and no one knows who Brad Dalgarno was anyway - but I wouldn't have had this kind of moment, which, for me, was the upside for all the down stuff, the hard stuff. It felt like a payoff of being on a team that respected each other. Finally, our energies were aligned, timing was great.

I cherish that and you know we get together occasionally with those guys. It's kind of like a secret bond that you have, that you just can be in the same room and respect and appreciate each other for sharing.