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Long Island Islanders: 9th Conference Finals berth
1997 1998 1999 2000 2002 2003 2004 2005 2007
OH MY GOD.
THE LONG ISLAND ISLANDERS JUST DID IT. THEY ACTUALLY DID IT!!
THE DEFENDING CUP CHAMPS—THE HARTFORD WHALERS—ARE OUT!! GONE!! SEE YA!!
Game 6… ON HOME ICE… AND THEY BLOW IT!!!
ARE YOU KIDDING ME, HARTFORD?!
Let’s start with this: you’re the champs. You’ve got the building PACKED. 44,000 people ready to explode. And what do you do?
You spot the Islanders FIVE RUNS.
FIVE.
FIVE NOTHING!! Just—“here you go, Long Island, have a nice comfortable elimination game lead.”
And the Islanders? Oh they said “don’t mind if I do!”
MINORU TAKASHIMA?? THREE HITS.
JEAN-SÉBASTIEN GIGUÈRE?? DRIVING IN RUNS LIKE IT’S A DRIVE-THRU.
LANCE CLARK?? BOOM. TWO-RUN BOMB. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
AND THEN… this guy.
JACK. BAUER.
OF COURSE IT’S JACK BAUER!!!
Every time this guy comes up, Hartford fans are like “NO NO NO NO NO—”
And what happens??
.625 IN THE SERIES!!! .667 ON BASE!!!
AND THEN—EIGHTH INNING—GAME’S NOT QUITE DEAD…
BANG.
HOME RUN.
GOOD NIGHT. DRIVE SAFE. SERIES OVER.
And can we talk about Arnel Pastor for a second?!
EIGHT innings. NINE hits. ONLY TWO RUNS.
Was it clean? NO.
Was it pretty? ABSOLUTELY NOT.
Did he absolutely refuse to let Hartford back in the game?
YES.
That’s playoff pitching! Bend, don’t break—and Hartford was snapping bats into double plays ALL NIGHT. FOUR of them!! FOUR!!
You cannot win like that!! You just can’t!!
AND THEN—OH THEN—the ninth inning…
Hartford’s like “WAIT! WAIT! WE’RE ALIVE!”
Four runs! Crowd going nuts!
Too late.
TOO. LATE.
You don’t get to sleep through eight innings and then show up in the ninth like it’s a Marvel post-credit scene!!
So now?
THE ISLANDERS—NINE CONFERENCE FINALS APPEARANCES!!
NINE!!!
And they’re moving on to face the Quebec Nordiques… who just casually SWEPT their series like it was nothing.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! That series is gonna be CHAOS.
But tonight?
This is about one thing.
The champs… got knocked out.
And the Islanders?
They didn’t sneak through.
They didn’t get lucky.
They WALKED INTO HARTFORD…
AND TOOK IT.
🔥
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