There was hitting. There were brilliant saves. There was one spectacular goal and two fluky, lucky goals. There were late heroics from odd sources. There was unimaginable tension. And there was overtime. Oh, God, there was overtime...
That was this game, this series -- there was no quit in either team, and though it got a little testy on occasion, it was remarkably clean hard-hitting. And there were no true role players -- everyone did everything. After all, when else would Alexei Kovalev be going out to hit someone cleanly?
And when else would Joey Kocur get the first good scoring chance, a backhander 1:20 in?
The Rangers start Glenn Anderson with Adam Graves and Mark Messier, but Kovalev moves to right wing on the second shift, frequently double-shifting and playing the middle with Stephane Matteau and Steve Larmer as well through the first period.
The teams went back and forth, back and forth all period, with probably the best chance coming on a Claude Lemieux to Bobby Carpenter play on a 2-on-1. Carpenter, though, ripped a shot high and wide right.
Meanwhile, the teams' fourth lines played well. The Devils' Crash-Line-to-be of Mike Peluso, Holik and Randy McKay generated a huge scoring chance late in the first, with only Steve Larmer's lifting Holik's stick in front preventing a good shot; the Rangers' Greg Gilbert-Craig MacTavish-Kocur line forechecked well. The Crash Line continued it into the second, with Holik again getting free in front, but Mike Richter making a big save -- one of many, as did counterpart Martin Brodeur -- to keep the game scoreless.
With 10:36 to go in the second, Ken Daneyko tried to dump the puck with his teammates changing, but threw it too hard. Icing was called as TV went to commercial.
Messier won the draw, to Brodeur's right, to Graves on the left side. Graves handed the puck off to Brian Leetch, who carried it down the left-wing boards. Messier picked off opposite-center Jim Dowd as Leetch took the puck through the far corner and behind the goal line to the right of the net. Billy Guerin charged after Leetch, but Leetch came to an instantaneous dead stop three feet to the right of the net, just long enough and far enough for Guerin to fly right past him. Leetch then reversed direction, doing almost a full 360, and backhanded the puck into Brodeur's left pad. It bounced off, and slithered into the net at 9:31 of the second. The Rangers had the lead.
The Devils desperately picked it up a bit in the third, but Richter proved equal to everything. Guerin got several big chances; at one point, he followed his own rebound right into Richter, sparking the goalie to get up angry, though things quieted in a hurry.
"The people are standing again," J.D. says at one point. "I don't know why they sit down."
It stayed 1-0 for almost as long as it could have. Brodeur went to the bench with 1:05 to go. Messier iced the puck with a monstrous 48 seconds left. Mike Keenan sent Graves, Messier, Larmer, Leetch and Jeff Beukeboom out; Jacques Lemaire sent out Bernie Nicholls, Guerin, John MacLean, Claude Lemieux, Scott Stevens and Bruce Driver. The Devils got two keeps off the ensuing draw, but Beukeboom finally cleared a loose puck for an icing with an interminable 24 seconds left. Stephane Richer and Valeri Zelepukin replaced Guerin and MacLean. Nicholls got a shot off the next draw that Richter held with 16.4 seconds, which replay corrected to 18.6 (get used to it).
Messier won the draw to the corner, but Beukeboom's clear was blocked. Richer centered to the front, where Lemieux got a tiny piece, and it came free to Zelepukin. Zelepukin took a whack at the puck, pushing it into Richter's pad; his second whack pushed it underneath and into the net with an improbable 7.7 seconds left, setting off a wild celebration.
Richter went ballistic, charging referee Bill McCreary and bumping him, thinking he had the puck covered. Replay would show he was wrong and McCreary was right; Zelepukin had a free puck and plenty of time.
The Rangers now had plenty of time -- 15 minutes -- to try to regroup.
About seven minutes into OT1, Leetch pinched, and Lemieux chipped it past him. McKay came down the right side and got Beukeboom down. McKay slipped it to the front to Holik, who chipped it toward Richter; Richter, though, poked his stick out (shades of Game 1) to get a piece. The puck bounced up into Richter's glove and down to the ice, where the goalie covered. It had almost ended.
And three and a half minutes into the second overtime, again, it almost ended. Driver led a slowly developing rush down the left side. Richer called for the puck in the left circle; Driver obliged, and Richer gunned it into Richter. The rebound bounced straight out, though, with a seeming pack crashing in after it and half an open net to Richter's left.
Nicholls and MacLean arrived at the same time as Sergei Zubov; the puck bounced off Zubov (without partner Kevin Lowe, who separated his right shoulder with five minutes left in OT1), off of MacLean, off of Zubov again, and flew to the left corner, where Noonan alertly cleared it. "Where's the puck?" Sam Rosen screamed. I can vividly recall screaming the same question. The important answer: not in the net.
And then about a minute later, Beukeboom recovered a Devils clear at the red line, carried it to the blueline as both teams changed, and blasted it high over the net. Viacheslav Fetisov picked it up to Brodeur's left.
And that's the moment life changed in these parts for good.
NJD 0 0 1 0 0--1
NYR 0 1 0 0 1--2
(Rangers win series, 4-3)
Goals: NJ--Zelepukin; NY--Leetch, Matteau. Assists: NJ--Lemieux, Richer;
NY--Graves, Messier, Tikkanen. Goalies: NJ--Brodeur (48 shots-46 saves);
NY--Richter (32-31). Power plays: NJ--0 of 1; NY--0 of 1.
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