Though Adam Graves scores 33 seconds into the game, Washington comes back with four straight -- two by Todd Krygier -- that render Brian Noonan's fourth of the playoffs irrelevant in a 4-2 Caps win.
Not only does Mike Richter lose his, and the Rangers', first of the playoffs, but he gets pulled after the fourth goal. Glenn Healy sees his first action of the playoffs and makes a grand total of three saves as the Rangers outshoot Washington 10-0 in the third.
The Rangers do still lead the series three games to one.
Farther-distant historical interlude -- Had the Rangers won, it would have been their first back-to-back playoff series sweeps since 1937, when they beat Toronto and the Montreal Maroons back-to-back. Those, though, were best-of-three series. Indeed, in their history, the Rangers had had only one best-of-seven sweep (Chicago, semifinals, 1972), to go along with one best-of-three (LA, first round, 1979) and one best-of-five (Philly, first round, 1983). They had also "swept" two total-goals, two-game series in 1933 on the way to their second Cup.
In Boston, meantime in 1994, Joisey evens the series 2-2 with a 5-4 overtime win.
NYR 1 0 1--2
WAS 1 2 0--4
(Rangers lead series, 3-1)
Goals: NY--Graves, Noonan; WAS--Krygier 2, Juneau, Wooley. Assists:
NY--Messier, Karpovtsev, Leetch; WAS--Cote 3, Hunter, Hatcher, Juneau.
Goalies: NY--Richter (20 shots-16 saves); Healy (3-3); WAS--Beaupre
(27-25). Power plays: NY--1 of 6; WAS--1 of 6.
Mike Fornabaio --mef17@oocities.com
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