Or maybe just the line about not counting chickens before they win their 16th playoff game.
At any rate, with plans for a victory parade made, the Rangers take a 1-0 lead midway through the first period, a leg-up on their try to secure a 4-1 series win and their first Stanley Cup since...
...Wait a second...
...Which one of those (deleted) linesmen blew the (deleted) whistle?
Can we go back to the line about being cursed?
Here's how it went down: Jay Wells takes a carom off of referee Andy van Hellemond in the corner to Mike Richter's right, and he clears the puck from the Ranger zone up just shy of the redline to Stephane Matteau in a slow-developing 3-on-2. Matteau hands over just inside the red to Tikkanen, who starts straight ahead and winds up for a blast at the blueline.
Freeze-framed, the puck is about six inches ahead of the blueline as Tikkanen is about to strike it; Matteau, who had continued down the right side, still has his left skate blade touching the blueline. Steve Larmer, between them, is a stride behind the blueline. The play is onside.
Tikkanen's blast beats Kirk McLean to the stick side.
But the whistle (Randy Mitton's, incidentally) had blown for an offsides.
Meanwhile, Sergio "That Snake" Momesso jumps and slashes Brian Leetch, starting a huge scrum; Momesso, as it's being broken up, takes another shot at Leetch.
That sets Jeff Beukeboom off, and he pulls Momesso down and starts taking swings at him. It's broken up in short order, but van Hellemond deems Beukeboom the instigator of the lone fight (Beukeboom vs. Momesso, which is barely a fight), and ejects him. Which completes a painful hat trick -- not only didn't the Rangers have a goal, they also didn't have a defenseman, and also had to kill a Vancouver power play.
They did kill it, though, and it stayed pretty quiet after that through the next 20 minutes, with Jeff Brown scoring the only goal at 8:10 of the second. At 10:13 of the second, the Rangers got their golden opportunity of the night as Geoff Courtnall was given a major for elbowing Zubov in the nose ("the kid learned to act," said a Ranger fan who'd complained about that inability in Game 4. Zubov, though, was indeed hurt, bringing about the major, which does not carry a game misconduct). Zubov misses the first shift on the power play; the Rangers do not get a good chance on the man-advantage.
Things explode in the third period. Geoff Courtnall opens the scoring on a rebound at 26 seconds, just seconds after a Mark Messier penalty expires; Pavel Bure gets credit at 2:48 as a rebound of his drive ricochets in off Leetch to give Vancouver a 3-0 lead, their largest of the series.
But it wasn't over. Thirty-nine seconds after Bure's goal, Doug Lidster scores on just a little flip at the net over McLean's left shoulder. Just 2:53 later, Larmer scores (not off of any defensemen this time), thanks to hard work along the boards from him, Sergei Nemchinov and Matteau. And 2:42 later, Mark Messier completes the comeback with his 11th of the playoffs, one of those patented wrong-foot wristers to the stick side off a drop in the neutral zone from Glenn Anderson, at 9:02. Three goals in 5:35. The game was tied 3-3, and the Garden was rocking.
For exactly 29 seconds.
Dave Babych knocks a Ranger centering pass ahead; Bure rushes it all the way up ice and sends it to the left side to a rushing Babych. Babych snaps one similarly to Messier's past a too-far-out Richter to give the Canucks the lead back.
And 2:49 later, the Canucks took a two-goal lead as Geoff Courtnall snaps a rebound home from the slot with Richter again appearing out too far, about four feet above the crease. Just 44 seconds later, Bure gets his 16th of the playoffs -- again on a rebound, again with Richter seeming out too far. With three goals in 3:33, the Canucks take a 6-3 lead, the margin by which they would win; it's the most goals the Rangers have allowed in the playoffs. And New York has had trouble all night picking up people coming in late, and getting to rebounds. The period sees eight goals scored, tied for second-most in league playoff history and tying for the most in finals history; the Canucks' five also ties for the most in a period in finals history.
So not only did the Rangers lose a goal and a defenseman and a power play, they lost a game. And if there is such a thing as an oh-damn-we're-going-7 feeling, that was it.
Game 6 was set for Saturday, June 11, in Vancouver.
VAN 0 1 5--6
NYR 0 0 3--3
(Rangers lead series, 3-2)
First period -- None. Penalties -- Hunter, Van (elbowing), :49; Momesso,
Van, minor-major (slashing, fighting), 10:06; Ronning, Van (roughing),
10:06; Beukeboom, NY, minor-major-game misconduct (instigator, fighting),
10:06; Wells, NY (high-sticking), 10:06; Matteau, NY (roughing), 10:06;
Hunter, Van (roughing), 13:02; Wells, NY (roughing), 13:02; Ronning, Van
(holding), 17:20; Larmer, NY (holding), 17:20; Nemchinov, NY (elbowing),
19:42.
Second period -- 1, Vancouver, Brown 4 (Ronning, Antoski), 8:10.
Penalties -- Courtnall, Van, major (elbowing), 10:13; Messier, NY
(hooking), 18:19.
Third period -- 2, Vancouver, Courtnall 6 (Lafayette, Hedican), :26. 3,
Vancouver, Bure 15 (Craven), 2:48. 4, New York, Lidster 2 (Kovalev), 3:27.
5, New York, Larmer 9 (Matteau, Nemchinov), 6:20. 6, New York, Messier 11
(Anderson, Graves), 9:02. 7, Vancouver, Babych 3 (Bure), 9:31. 8,
Vancouver, Courtnall 7 (Lafayette, Lumme), 12:20. 9, Vancouver, Bure 16
(Ronning), Hedican) 13:04. Penalties -- Kocur, NY (slashing), 18:41.
Shots on goal -- Vancouver 12-8-17 -- 37; New York 10-13-15 -- 38.
Power-play opportunities -- Vancouver 0 of 4; New York 0 of 2.
Goalies -- Vancouver, McLean 14-8 (38 shots-35 saves); New York, Richter,
15-4 (37-31). Attendance -- 18,200.
Referee -- Andy vanHellemond. Linesmen -- Randy Mitton, Ray Scapinello.
Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com
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