Easter Epic
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date | April 18, 1987 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arena | Capital Centre | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| City | Landover, Maryland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 18,130 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Easter Epic is the nickname given to a National Hockey League (NHL) ice hockey game during the 1987 Stanley Cup playoffs between the New York Islanders and Washington Capitals. The seventh and deciding game of the Patrick Division semifinals, it was played April 18–19, 1987, at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland, and is so named because the game started on Saturday evening but did not finish until the early hours of Easter Sunday.
As of 2024, the game is notable for the following:
- It is the longest Game 7 in Stanley Cup playoff history and one of two Game 7's (the other being in 1939) to need three or more overtimes
- It was the first Game 7 since 1968 to need more than one overtime period
- It was the first game since 1971 to go into a third overtime and the first since 1951 to go into a fourth
- It was the first time in Stanley Cup playoff history that the road team won Game 7 beyond the first overtime period
- It was the only playoff game that season to go beyond one overtime 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.