Easter Epic
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| Date | April 18, 1987 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Arena | Capital Centre | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| City | Landover, Maryland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 18,130 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Easter Epic is the nickname given to a 1987 Stanley Cup playoff game between the New York Islanders and Washington Capitals, played April 18–19, 1987, at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland. It is so named because the game started on Saturday evening but did not finish until the early hours of Easter Sunday.
The game is notable because it is the longest Game 7 in Stanley Cup playoffs history and one of two series-deciding games to need more than three overtime periods. It was the first game since 1971 to go to a third overtime and the first since 1951 to go to a fourth. It was also the only playoff game this year to go beyond one OT period.
The game finally ended at the 8:47 mark of the fourth overtime when Pat LaFontaine was able to keep the puck in Washington's zone, firing a slapshot over the glove side of Washington goaltender Bob Mason.
The game was included in its entirety on the New York Islanders 10 Greatest Games DVD box set released in 2009.
The 1987 Patrick Division Semifinals pitted the third-place New York Islanders against the second-place Washington Capitals in a best-of-seven series. It was the fifth consecutive season these two teams matched up with each other; the Islanders had won three of the previous four, but looked to avenge their earliest exit ever from the playoffs at the hands of the Capitals the previous spring.
The first two games were played at the Capitals' home, Capital Centre. Washington won Game 1, 4–3, and the Isles were victorious in Game 2, 3–1, sending the series to Long Island tied at one game apiece.
At home, the Islanders dropped Games 3 (2–0) and 4 (4–1), to fall behind in the series, 3–1. No NHL team had won a series coming back from this kind of deficit in 12 years; coincidentally, it was the Islanders who performed the feat, coming back from a 3–0 deficit to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1975. In similar comeback fashion, just two years earlier, the Islanders also became the first team to win a best-of-5 series after trailing 2–0; that series was against the Capitals.
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