NY Islanders: Top 5 Electrifying Goals 2000-2010

4. Mark Parrish: First Isles Home Playoff Goal since '94

The 2001-02 season was a breath of fresh air for Islanders fans as mentioned before. This was the first time that they made the Stanley Cup Playoffs in eight years, with the last being a sweep at the hands of the New York Rangers, who were also in the middle of a seven-year playoff drought during this season.

The Isles would finish with 96 points good for 5th place in the Eastern Conference, their best regular season points-wise since, unbelievably 1983-84. As one could imagine the older Islanders fans have been waiting a long time to see a regular season performance such as this where they are to be taken seriously. Even when they made their run to the Wales Conference Finals in 1992-93 with the likes of Pierre Turgeon, Ray Ferraro, Steve Thomas, and of course David Volek, they were always not very respected by the league and fans alike while being underdogs.

So naturally, with this being the first time they even sniffed the playoffs since 1994, Islanders fans must have been antsy to get the ball rolling at the newly renovated Nassau Coliseum. The Islanders had lost the first two games of this series in Toronto, so this game was a must-win for them. Toronto's Alexander Mogilny would score the ice-breaker at 7:32 of the first, which would be the Maple Leafs' sixth goal of the series. The Islanders only scored one goal in the series and came home after getting shut out in game two. That was until Mark Parrish, who scored 30 goals that season, scored on the power play with the crowd behind him to give the Coliseum faithful their first home playoff goal in eight years.

The Isles would win this game lopsidedly, by a score of 6-1. Winning in this fashion would send a message to the Maple Leafs that they were not there just to go through the motions, they were absolutely prepared to take this series to the distance.