Except this time, it was Jamie McLennan on the losing end of a 6-0 Rangers win. McLennan, actually, gets to face the entire barrage tonight -- six goals in the first 44:23 before a scoreless final 15:37. Kovalev scores from Leetch at 5:41 of the first to get it going; Messier and Lowe score in the first 1:38 of the second to build a 3-0 lead. MacTavish, Matteau and Noonan score later.
Mike Richter becomes the second Ranger to post back-to-back playoff shutouts. The first was Davey Kerr in ... 1940.
NYI 0 0 0--0
NYR 1 4 1--6
(Rangers lead best-of-7 series, 2-0)
Goals: NYR--Kovalev, Messier, Lowe, MacTavish, Matteau, Noonan. Assists:
NYR--Kovalev 2, Leetch, Anderson, Larmer, Noonan, Tikkanen, MacTavish,
Karpovtsev, Graves. Goalies: NYI--McLennan (36 shots-30 saves);
NYR--Richter (29-29). Power plays: NYI--0 of 7; NYR--1 of 5.
As McLennan watches puck after puck fly past him, the assembled 18,200 take up a chant that has been heard as recently as February 1999 in the barn on 33rd Street, a chant that may well live forever, certainly better than gross and macabre references to Pelle Lindbergh, if not as pervasive as Denis Potvin's creation of a partial vacuum.
"We want Hextall!" the masses chant. "We want Hextall!"
The old nemesis reduced to a walking (this case, sitting) punchline.
It will be chanted in 1994 at Washington goalies, at Marty Brodeur, at Kirk McLean. It will be chanted at hapless goalies for years to come. It will be chanted at Hextall the following year as the Blueshirts play Quebec, knowing that if their Rangers win, the crowd will get Hextall and the Flyers.
When they get Hextall, Hextall singlehandedly takes both of the first two games of the teams' quarterfinal series into overtime, both of which the Flyers win, taking perhaps the Rangers' best chance at another Cup away. But how many years ago is this, anyway?
Mike (A: Five) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com
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