--At 13:39, Brian Leetch gloves down a clearing attempt by Jeff Brown, and puts it towards the net ("good things happen..."). It goes off toward the right of goalie Kirk McLean, and as McLean goes out to knock it down, it goes off his stick and blocking glove and back through his legs. And into the net. Catching a break, the Rangers tie the game 1-1.
--With Leetch in the penalty box for tripping Geoff Courtnall, a massive scrum sends four players, including Mark Messier and Kevin Lowe, to the box. Bure and Jay Wells jab at each other as the teams line up for the draw, and when the puck gets won to the left to Wells along the boards, Bure violently yanks his stick up into Wells's face. Wells is bloodied, cut on the nose, so Andy VanHellemond gives Bure a major for high-sticking and a game misconduct. The Rangers would not score on the power play, but they would score a 4-on-4 goal on Bure's penalty time. Glenn Anderson's second goal in two games -- ultimately his second game-winner in a row, and his third goal of the playoffs -- is a deflection off a great singular effort by Sergei Nemchinov at 19:19.
--Leetch scores with 1:28 left in the second, four seconds after the conclusion of Vancouver-dominated 4-on-4, to give the Rangers the first non-empty-netter-aided two-goal lead of the series. It's 25 seconds into the third that the fluke comes back. Dave Babych tries to clear the puck after Messier is stopped by McLean after a nice dump-in by Steve Larmer. Larmer stops the clear along the left-win boards, carries around the top of the circle, and when he gets to the dead middle of the ice, he tries to backhand it to the left corner for Messier. John McIntyre deflects the puck with his stickblade, but it deflects away from the corner and toward the right of McLean. Babych, watching Messier as he swings behind the net, takes a stride to get closer to Messier; the puck deflects off his left skate and takes a sharp redirection through a sprawling McLean's pads and into the net. It's Rangers 2, Flukes 2, Canucks 1.
And it's all capped off by a highlight-reel goal by Alex Kovalev; on a move back to his forehand, he dekes McLean out of his pants and drops to his own pants as he roofs the puck. It made Sports Illustrated; it served as the title page illustration for NHL '95 (sure, the one with the Ranger Cup team is the unplayable one...).
The Rangers lead the series 2-1; Game 4 is June 7 in Vancouver.
NYR 2 1 2 -- 5
VAN 1 0 0 -- 1
(Rangers lead series, 2-1)
First period -- 1, Vancouver, Bure 14 (Linden, Adams), 1:03. 2, New York,
Leetch 8, 13:39. 3, New York, Anderson 3 (Nemchinov, Beukeboom), 19:19.
Penalties -- Wells, NY (tripping), 2:54. Anderson, NY (roughing), 5:42.
Hunter, Van (charging), 5:42. Lumme, Van (holding), 9:57. MacTavish, NY
(holding), 15:40. Leetch, NY (tripping), 17:56. Lowe, NY (high-sticking),
18:12. Ronning, Van (high-sticking), 18:12. Messier, NY (roughing), 18:12.
Momesso, Van (roughing), 18:12. Bure, Van, major-game misconduct
(high-sticking), 18:21.
Second period -- 4, New York, Leetch 9 (Tikkanen, Beukeboom), 18:32.
Penalties -- Lowe, NY (roughing), 5:34. Messier, NY (roughing), 16:28.
Antoski, Van (roughing), 16:28.
Third period -- 5, New York, Larmer 7, :25. 6, New York, Kovalev 7
(Graves, Messier), 13:03 (pp). Penalties -- Tikkanen, NY (hooking), 3:13.
Hedican, Van (holding), 5:34. McIntyre, Van (holding), 5:34. MacTavish, NY
(holding), 9:46. Momesso, Van (cross-checking), 11:42. Gelinas, Van
(roughing), 16:35. Antoski, Van, double-minor (cross-checking, roughing),
19:19.
Shots on goal -- New York 9-10-6 -- 25. Vancouver 11-5-9 -- 25.
Power-play opportunities -- New York 1 of 7. Vancouver 0 of 6.
Goalies -- New York, Richter, 14-5 (25 shots-24 saves). Vancouver,
McLean, 13-7 (25-20). Attendance -- 16, 150.
Referee -- Andy vanHellemond. Linesmen -- Ray Scapinello, Randy Mitton.
Mike (Larmer's Pinball Goal was the first time I really believed -- it seemed comparable to Francis off Beukeboom through Richter) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com
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