Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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------

Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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The Rangers are off till Feb. 18.

Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Much is made of the Blueshirts' depth as they play their third game in 66 hours. True, Greg Gilbert-Mike Hudson-Joe Kocur is pitted frequently against then top snipers Kevin Stevens and Rick Tocchet, and do the job nicely. Even when the cast of characters above them change (and even the man between the wingers changes), the fourth line remains reliable throughout the year.

Adam Graves scores his 40th goal in the first period. He has 26 games to go.

Mike Fornabaio -- (and Anthony and Brian -- IT'S CALLED A JOKE :-) )

mef17@oocities.com

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I kind of hope to see a lot of Kovalev.

What's that line about being careful what you wish for?

Mike (you're only as old as you feel, and when you feel 74, what's the difference) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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P.S. -- steal two points tonight, we did...

"Overextending shifts is another subtle indication of a lack of discipline," Keenan says. "Alex probably thinks I was rewarding him."

Alex wasn't the only one. A view from the greens says he was one of the few to show up. Kovalev is one of only four Rangers to end up even or better in plus/minus.

Adam Oates (goal, two assists) gets first star honors. Mike Richter allows three goals on 15 shots and gets pulled (not at the third goal, but 48 seconds later); Glenn Healy allows three more, and because New York scores three, he's the losing goalie.

Meanwhile, Adam Graves scores his 41st and 42nd of the season. He has 25 games to go.

Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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(P.S. -- thanks for the kind words -- and thanks saget for the 19YA feature! Still believing in miracles -- and that the equipment staff was what won that gold medal...)

Adam Graves scores his 43rd, the gamewinner, in the second period. He has 24 games to go.

Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike (check for typos) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike (And if you think Carole's indignant, wait till the AHL page gets up and running at The Hockey Insider) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Oh, yeah -- and Peter Forsberg burns Ranger prospect goalie Corey Hirsch onto a postage stamp in the shootout of the Gold Medal game of the 1994 Olympics. Sweden 3, Canada 2 (SO). Some Mighty Ducks draft pick named Kariya had just missed the shot before for Canada. Talk of a termination contract is premature.

Mike (The last time they played that well in the regular season was against Philly in '97, the Shane Churla game -- when Messier was out) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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(Recap-wise, I'm pretty much out the next coupla weeks. Unless you want CT high school recaps...Since I've asked about everyone else, anyone know why Fairfield Prep fired Adolph Brink?)

Andersson's success and celebration earns him much mention in the Daily News, and that story will stay on the dorm room wall of a certain Ranger fan until May.

The Rangers are 2-0-0 in games rescheduled due to the Feb. 11 snowstorm.

Meanwhile, Mark Messier records two assists, finally passing Alex Delvecchio into 10th place on the all-time assists list.

Mike (If Nedved keeps playing like that, I'll shut up for awhile) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Tomorrow, the Rangers go out to the Island. Except for a playoff game in 1990, things have not gone well out there.

Mike (Yeah Steve Passmore) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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That changes today.

The Rangers win 5-4, the first non-playoff win on the Hempstead Turnpike since Oct. 28, 1989. Sergei Zubov nets the game-winner, and Adam Graves has two goals and an assist.

The exorcism continues.

Mike (Spencer Ross made it sound like Knuble had gotten the hat trick on the fourth goal, and I was banging the damn roof of the car for a quarter mile on I-95) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike Keenan is concerned: "They are far bigger and far more physical than we are," Keenan says. "If you ask me, I don't know that we can compete with them in a seven-game series."

Of course, the only place the Rangers and Red Wings can meet in a seven-game series is the Stanley Cup Finals. The odds are quite decent that some upstart expansion team could knock either one off by then...

Mike (These things happen...Greenwich and Fairfield Prep for instance) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike (Is there such a thing as foreshadowing the past? And can you do it back-to-back days?) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike (Correcshun: 3/7/94 vs. the Wings was at the Garden) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike (Who can unnestand dose damn Bostinuhs? Dey don't tawk cleely like we do inna Bronx) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike (Meaning Ulf Samuelsson's concussion came two days too soon for the synergy to work) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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--Tangential plug alert: Getting mad, baby:
Four-on-SCORE!, the AHL's great experiment for the NHL.

Mike (Though that crazy Kovalev kid could probably play the middle) Fornabaio-- mef17@oocities.com

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Meanwhile, a trade rumor from the Petr Nedved soap opera: if Vancouver is awarded Brendan Shanahan as compensation for the Blues' signing of Nedved, then Shanahan would be wheeled to the Rangers for Tony Amonte and Sergei Zubov.

Mike (No. It's just a ruuuuuuumour...) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Meanwhile, arbitrator George Nicolau awards Craig Janney and a second-round pick to Vancouver as compensation for St. Louis's signing of Petr Nedved March 8, declining the Canucks' request for Brendan Shanahan. Janney, perturbed, refuses to report.

Mike (Janney's 1983 Enfield High School team is rumored to be the last to go undefeated through a Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference season. Where else you gonna get stuff like this?) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike (including a parade) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike ("At least, that's what _I_ got out of it. I have a history of missing the point on stuff like this." -Homer Simpson) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Meanwhile, as the Rangers prepare for their final game before the trading deadline, Episode 1F14 of The Simpsons, "Homer Loves Flanders," debuts (yep, remember the Simpsons on Thursdays?).

What does that have to do with the hockey season? Absolutely nothing, but I'll use any conceivable excuse to get to use the quote in the tagline...

Mike ("Stupid lack of public urinals." -Homer Simpson) Fornabaio-- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike (Watched this one on ESPN while on Spring Break. Not a happy vacation memory) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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"At the end of that meeting, I walked down to see Monie Begley (MSG Director of public relations)," Barry Meisel quotes Gutkowski in _Losing the Edge_. "I said, 'Monie, if we win the Stanley Cup, it will be because of that meeting.'"

Mike (well, maybe indirectly) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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(P.S. Anyone wanna trade locations for the next couple weeks? This state's gonna be unbearable with UConn headed for the Final Four...)

Meanwhile, with the trading deadline a day away, the rumor mill heats up. Detroit is rumored looking for a big-time goalie, with big young'n Keith Primeau requested in return by pretty much every potential trading partner. On the Rangers side, there is a pretty good chance that Keenan doghousers Tony Amonte and Mike Gartner (and a couple others) will be elsewhere by tomorrow afternoon; the big question is what the Rangers will be able to get for them.

Mike ("I'll getcha somethin' nice." -Unkie Herb Powell) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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----
From mef17@columbia.edu
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 19:01:26 -0500 (EST)
From: Michael Fornabaio (mef17@columbia.edu)
To: kkeller@mail.sas.upenn.edu
Subject: Trades NYR

Ah, it's days like this that I miss the non-daily digest format. I'd have
been on this machine for the whole afternoon. My 2 cents worth on the
deals:

   Andersson for a conditional 9th: Somehow I think that after waiting nine
years for Peter, he'd be more valuable to us on the bench than a crapshoot
ninth round pick.
   P. Bourque for everybody's favorite player, Future Considerations: well,
I ain't too disappointed, anyway.
   Amonte and a college kid (? or juniors? didn't catch the name) for
Noonan and Matteau: well, Matteau is younger than I thought anyway, and
Noonan has shown a couple of flashes in the playoffs (he had a big year the
time the Hawks died in the 1st round, if I remember). Could work out,
although I did like the way Amonte was trying to toss his weight around.
   Gartner for Anderson: Who the hell scores goals for this team now? A
lotta people are going to have to pick it up. Anderson has to be brilliant
in the postseason for this deal to be worthwhile at all.
  (PS--Neil Smith on FAN said the Rangers also got Toronto's 4th rounder
this year and a prospect named Scott Malone out of U New Hampshire. My NHL
Guide is two years old, but he's 23 and was 6', 180 lbs, Toronto's 10th
pick, 220 overall in 1990. Anyone know anything else, more recent, about
him?)
   Marchant for MacTavish: decent deal. Don't know how much MacTavish
really has left, but he is a center in time of trouble and he does have
those rings. Marchant could be good, but hell, this deal fits right in, I
think.

  Now if they give Anderson number nine and take it away from Graves I
really go nuts. Maybe jump out the window or something.
  Off to Calgary...
Mike Fornabaio

(Hmm. Anderson #8, MacTavish #14, Noonan #20, Norstrom either #3 or #5,
Matteau #29? Whaddaya think?)
----

The college or juniors kid sent with Tony Amonte to Chicago was a college (Miami of Ohio) center named Matt Oates, who's played the last four years with the Blackhawks' ECHL affiliate, the Columbus Chill. He's played reasonably well down there.

Peter Andersson's ninth-round payoff produced Vitali Yeremeyev (yes, that Vitali Yeremeyev -- why not trade one European you've waited for forever and get another European you'll wait for forever); Our Favorite Ace played the rest of the season in Florida, then returned to Europe. And Phil Bourque's future considerations from Ottawa are still, officially anyway, future considerations; Phil's still playing in Germany as best we know, for EHC Hamburg last time we looked.

Mattias Norstrom indeed moves to No. 5 as Craig MacTavish takes over No. 14. Mostly, that just means Norstrom gets announced earlier among the scratches. Brian Noonan and Stephane Matteau each take the number of a Binghamton Ranger: Matteau gets Daniel Lacroix's No. 32, while Noonan takes Jim Hiller's No. 16. Glenn Anderson is given No. 36 (first to wear it since Todd Charlesworth); I stay away from windows.

The papers will call it a "Massacre on 33rd" and words to that effect, but in retrospect the team is built nicely for a run at the 1994 Stanley Cup.

Though it is completely unimportant at the time, for playing the 1994-95 regular season (which, due to stagnant labor negotiations, is still just a rumor) and beyond, however, the team is taken somewhat back, as no one will be able to score goals for this team. This forces the trade of a No. 1 pick in 1995 (J-S Giguere, though the good Petr Sykora was available) and a couple of spare parts to Hartford for Pat Verbeek. But how many Years Ago is this, anyway? (A: 5)

Todd Marchant and Tony Amonte will go on to be highly productive members of their new teams, Amonte even hitting the net on a regular basis. Mike Gartner remains the classy professional for four more years until his career reaches a disastrous end with the Phoenix Coyotes, who end up waiving him to get Michel (play for nine teams, get the tenth free) Petit onto their roster.

Meanwhile back in 1994, Vancouver completes the Nedved-Janney fiasco by returning Craig Janney to St. Louis for Jeff Brown, Bret Hedican, and a young center named Nathan LaFayette. LaFayette will twice be entwined in Ranger history in the next year, acquiring a sonorous nickname in the process.

There are 15 trades in the NHL today, actually, involving 30 players. The other big highlight: Al Iafrate from Washington to Boston for Joey Juneau. Detroit also gets goalie Bob Essensa from Winnipeg for Dallas Drake and Tim Cheveldae.

Mike ("Always move forward; going straight will get you nowhere." -Green Day) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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(And since it has to be said: DING!)

Mike ("I don't believe in first impressions, but just this once I hope that looks don't deceive." -HOFer Billy Joel) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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But the more lasting occurence of the night happened in Inglewood, Calif. A second-period power-play goal against Vancouver gave center Wayne Gretzky his 802nd NHL goal, passing Gordie Howe's record of 801. He now has more goals, assists, and points in his NHL career than did Howe in his, NHL records all.

Mike (Sure, just steal the kid's thunder, Wayne. Sure. You'd better make it up to him with a couple of assists someday...) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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"I just put 'em in my pocket and left," McNall is quoted as saying. "I committed a crime. But I wasn't thinking then. I was just a kid."

McNall apparently stopped thinking other times, as here in 1999 he remains in jail after defrauding several banks out of multi-multi-multi millions. McNall's downfall greased Wayne Gretzky's 1996 exit to St. Louis, from which he ended up a New York Ranger.

Mike (told you I could make this Ranger related sometimes) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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It's the extracurriculars at the end of this game, though, that wake some people's roommates. Seems Pat Quinn sent heavies Shawn Antoski and Tim Hunter out at the end of the game, and Antoski nailed Jay Wells with an elbow to the head that put Wells out with a concussion. He then went after Craig MacTavish. Gino Odjick's stick almost hit Mike Keenan on the bench, and Keenan and Quinn exchanged some words across the barriers. Joey Kocur chased after Sergio Momesso (remember that name), who had earlier knocked Kevin Lowe out with a concussion, and slashed him hard across the arms. Momesso came back with a two-handed swing that Kocur avoided; Momesso nonetheless was assessed a match penalty and suspended one game. Hunter would also be suspended three games for wrestling a linesman trying to keep him from chasing after Adam Graves again....

You'd think these teams had some wacky notion they were going to meet again.

Leetch, incidentally, has two goals and seven assists in the three games since the trading deadline.

Mike (he's like good or something) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike ("And don't look back. Something might be gaining on you." -Satchel Paige) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike (UConn (shudder)) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Meanwhile, the Devils win 5-2 against Montreal, keeping pace with the Rangers atop the overall standings with 101 points apiece.

Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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FIVE...

Now.

C'mon, just do it. Whistle, yell, and then go about your daily business. If sports fandom really is about shared experiences, it can't hurt you (unless you're at work and your boss is an Islander fan). Sure it's vulgar. Sure it's stupid. Sure the check was legal and it's just venting frustration. But it's not like you're negotiating peace in the Balkans or anything; it's just a silly little chant. Now join in, for crying out loud...

Ah, that's better. :-)

Mike (It's been almost four years since I heard my first "Who's Potvin?" in the Blueseats, by the way. One of the saddest days ever spent at the Garden...) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike (Crazy preppies) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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With the win, the Rangers retake first place overall. They will never relinquish it.

Mike (and Mark Messier, Graves, Richter and Brian Leetch all have their legs broken by vicious two-handers, effectively ending the Rangers' run at the Cup. APRIL FOOL!) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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In one month and 23 days, though events would transpire a little differently, you may wish to draw a couple of parallels.

Mike (Or, just draw those little matchbook cartoon characters, either way) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike (Anyone else remember when WFAN had the Flashbacks before the top-of-the-hour report? And anyone else turn their radio off the instant they heard Gary Thorne invoking Joe Cirella? And back when it actually happened, did anyone else just sit there without a word for five minutes, and then go straight to bed stunned without even saying good night to the parents?) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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(Incidentally -- true story -- at the 1999 Old-Timers Game on All-Star Eve, Darren Pang played goal for a period. We had it on the TV in the office briefly before a UConn basketball game, and one of my coworkers noticed who the goalie was, and said, in all seriousness, "Whoa, it's the ESPN sideline reporter!" Since reminding him of just what Darren Pang used to do for a living would have surely led to bringing up the Easter Sunday Massacre, I kept my mouth shut and went back to typing in college results...)

Center Brian Skrudland of the Panthers sprains his right ankle after it gets caught in a rut in the Garden ice. The Panthers will go 0-2-3 in their next five without their captain.

Mike (and for Florida, that means the monkey's paw is cursed, the Frogurt is also cursed, and the toppings contain potassium benzoate. Can they go now? (9F04)) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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But the Rangers had snapped a four-game losing streak the night before with a 4-0 win at the Capital Centre, keeping themselves remarkably alive in the playoff race. Despite playing without Brian Leetch (out for the year after breaking his ankle in mid-March under mysterious late-night circumstances), despite an injury-plagued and awful season for Mark Messier (in which he basically got Roger Neilson fired, and would eventually be booed mercilessly at the Garden), the Rangers came into this game against Hartford just one point -- one measly point -- behind the Islanders for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Patrick Division. And they'd lead the Whalers 4-2 with 15:00 to play in the game, with goals from Mike Gartner, rookie Alexei Kovalev, Tony Amonte, and Messier.

But Hartford would win this one 5-4 on a Pat Verbeek goal, a five-holer from the right circle past John Vanbiesbrouck (which wrote his ticket out of town) after Geoff Sanderson and Mikael Nylander had tied it, sending the Rangers reeling once again. The loss began a seven-game season-ending losing streak, and one year after the Rangers won the President's Trophy, they would finish last in the Patrick Division -- behind even the Flyers, who had gutted their team over the summer to acquire Eric Lin...oh, sorry, right, invoke not Larry Bertuzzi...

Hard to believe, but just one year later, the Rangers would have 50 wins and be on the verge of clinching their second President's Trophy in three years.

Mike (Although -- if the package of Tony Amonte, Alexei Kovalev, John Vanbiesbrouck, Doug Weight, first-round picks in 1993 and 1995, and $12M had been allowed -- imagine how whacked-out different history would be) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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The win is No. 51, setting a franchise record. It also gives them points number 108 and 109, tying a twice-achieved team record.

Young defenseman Alexander Karpovtsev, who has been inconsistent but still a steal for Mike Hurlbut, has two assists. It's his first multi-point night in the NHL. Alexei Kovalev scores twice, and Craig MacTavish gets the game-winner.

Meanwhile, the Islanders catch the Panthers for eighth in the conference with a 5-1 win over Dallas. The Isles are unbeaten in six.

Mike (Re: April 3 -- Joe Cirella didn't SCORE that goal. Who did? Well, he wears 15 and plays on the Rangers' top line now...) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike (Hey, they're probably confident enough that, when it matters, they could get two straight to finish a playoff sweep out there) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike (Well, 29 was lucky except for Eric (Hulk) Cairns. But now every time I see 4:24 on the clock, I whisper a "Heave ho"...unless I'm alone, in which case it gets shouted. Hard to forget that kinda stuff from yer childhood) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Jokey numbers-related plug alert: Wacky Matteau Numerology stuff. From the Tirade Archive.

Cumulative (since 1985-86) Rangers Roster.

Meanwhile, the Rangers win 3-2 over Buffalo. Joby Mess does not figure, but Brian Noonan gets another game-winning goal. The Rangers set another team record with their 111th point of the season, breaking a team record of 109 (though they already had it on tiebreakers) set in both 1970-71 and 1971-72 (of course, this is Game 83 of an 84-game schedule).

Adam Graves finally scores his 52nd (and final) goal of the season. It's a team record that, proverbially, still stands.

Meanwhile, Florida's 5-2 loss to Quebec sets up for the Islanders the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. A win April 13 will finish the job for the Long Island boys.

Mike (Jeez, you think they'll do it?) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Meanwhile (59YA), the 54th anniversary of Bryan Hextall's overtime goal is observed by a fervent few. Something very special happened on April 13, 1940. Something annoyingly chantable, actually...

Mike ("We want Hextall." No, wait, that's different...) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Alexander Karpovtsev is, almost by default, the Fan Club's Rookie of the Year. And Black Ace Extraordinaire Eddie Olczyk is voted Player's Player by his teammates.

Oh yeah, they played a game: the regular season ends with a 2-2 tie against the homeward-bound Flyers, with Craig MacTavish scoring the tying goal. The Rangers shoot 54 times, which is, what, a week's worth today.

So, end season I (52-24-8). If they can find a way to win 16 games in Season II by mid-June before the NHL sends them home, they will give their fans the thrill of their lives. And if they can't, well, it'll just be another year of disappointment...

Mike (fill in the punchline -- the Fan Club has not awarded the Rookie of the Year since) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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It's an off day around the league as the papers start to build the matchup. As I think I've mentioned, I'm big on hanging stuff on the wall; I tell an Islander-fan acquaintance from down the dorm hall that every time the Rangers win, I'm going to put the back page of the Daily News on my wall, and every time the Isles win, I'm going to hang Newsday's back page. In a quieter moment, I pray that everything I hang up will be black-and-white...

Mike (Who says prayer doesn't work?) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Realizing that for eight seasons I've worn certain hats certain days, worn certain clothes certain ways, only gone through certain doors, and none of it has done a damn thing to end the curse, I swear off all superstition for the playoff season.

Mike (Wearing the blue sweater during home playoff games and the white sweater during road playoff games isn't superstition -- there was no won-loss correlation to whether I did it or not, so I think that makes it tradition, not superstition) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Leetch scores on the power play at 3:32, followed by Larmer in the first, and Messier, Graves, Kovalev and Zubov in the second. Messier adds two assists.

The short-form box score:

NYI 0 0 0--0
NYR 2 4 0--6
Goals: NYR--Leetch, Larmer, Messier, Graves, Kovalev, Zubov. Assists: NYR-- Messier 2, Zubov 2, Kovalev, Graves, Beukeboom, Larmer, Matteau, Leetch. Goalies: NYI--Hextall (28 shots-22 saves), McLennan (11-11); NYR--Richter (21-21). Power plays: NYI--0 of 5; NYR--2 of 9.

Game 2, quick turnaround, is tomorrow.

Mike (I'd say something coherent about the Great Retirement, but I can't get the thoughts together yet...) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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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 their 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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Since it's pretty long, I didn't want to blow out the list and post it, but my own Gretzky tribute, which took three long days to drag out of me: The Gretzky Tribute.

To the great lyrics Lynne posted (Doncha love how Green Day's big mainstream break came from a song entitled "Good Riddance" that gets played at celebrations :-) ), I'll add this from Simon and Garfunkel's "Bookends Theme":

"Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be -- I have a photograph
Preserve your memories; they're all that's left you."

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Meanwhile, in tomorrow's editions of the Thomson Newspapers flagship, the (Toronto) Globe and Mail, Don Cherry predicts the Calgary Flames will win the Stanley Cup.

In fairness, Grapes also claims first-round upsets are the most common kind.

Mike (the employee handbook, I think, has something about referring to the corporation and its flagship paper at all opportunites) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Um, Ray, it came in Game 3.

And, um, Ray, it came with your team already down 3-0. Late in the second period.

Well, maybe my reaction to the celebration was just the cocky eyes of a Ranger fan whose team suddenly wasn't going to sweep a four-game series with four shutouts. Tikkanen, Leetch and Graves had given the Rangers that 3-0 lead; Kovalev and Graves, their third each, gave the Rangers a 5-1 win.

Mike Richter made 21 saves. The Rangers shot three times in the first period on dear old nemesis Ron Hextall; two went in.

NYR 2 2 1--5
NYI 0 1 0--1
(Rangers lead series, 3-0)
Goals: NYR--Graves 2, Tikkanen, Leetch, Kovalev; NYI--Ferraro. Assists: NYR--Leetch 3, Noonan 2, Messier, Zubov, Matteau; NYI--Dalgarno, Vaske. Goalies: NYR--Richter (22 shots-21 saves); NYI--Hextall (18-13). Power plays: NYR--3 of 7; NYI--0 of 3.

Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Meanwhile, Tony (hit the net) Amonte scores four goals to lead the Blackhawks to a 5-4 win over Toronto, cutting the Leafs' lead to 2-1 in the series.

The Rangers go for the sweep tomorrow on the Island.

Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Islander fans had better have enjoyed it, because that was as good as it was going to get, not only this afternoon but for the better part of two decades.

The Rangers tie it (Kovalev in the first, Zubov in the second) and then take the lead in the second on a Messier goal. Larmer adds one in the third before Howie Rose makes one of many brilliant calls this postseason.

"And here's Messier! Racing on a breakaway! Cuts in, he shoots -- he scores!!! And that, my friends, will BURY the New York Islanders."

Aye, that it would -- five years later, the Isles haven't been back to the playoffs. Howie knows that first-hand -- getting a chance to work TV for Sportschannel, which became Fox Sports New York, he's now Islander television play-by-play man.

16 different Rangers score points in the series, which the Rangers win 22-3 in total goals.

NYR 1 2 2--5
NYI 2 0 0--2
(Rangers win series, 4-0)
Goals: NYR--Messier 2, Kovalev, Zubov, Larmer; NYI--Thomas, Plante. Assists: NYR--Larmer, Zubov, Leetch, Nemchinov, Gilbert, Beukeboom; NYI--Krupp, Ferraro, Turgeon, King. Goalies: NYR--Richter (18 shots-16 saves); NYI--Hextall (34-29). Power plays: NYR--2 of 6; NYI--1 of 2.

Mike (and then ABC cut out to show us the last two seconds of Blues-Stars. So we still haven't seen the Islanders shake the Rangers' hands) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Meanwhile, the Sabres' Dave Hannan scores in the fourth overtime to send their series with the Devils to a seventh game.

Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Meanwhile, some of The Rumors (capital R) are codified in Stan Fischler's Bluelines column in The Hockey News: Mike Keenan back to Philadelphia, if and only if the Rangers win the Cup. "The thinking goes like this: Keenan would have accomplished all he could on Broadway and would get permission to break his contract, which has four years to go," Stan writes.

Mike (Okay, _Brind'Amour_ for Tikkanen and Lidster, then?) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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First, Chris Osgood leaves his net to try to clear the zone; Jamie Baker stops it and knuckles it in from somewhere around Kalamazoo to give the Sharks a 3-2 win and a 4-3 series win over the Red Wings.

Then, Vancouver rallies from a 3-1 series deficit with its third straight overtime win. Pasha Bure slips one in on a breakaway for a 4-3 win, sending the Canucks on to face Dallas in the second round. The Sharks will try to deal with Toronto.

Rangers-Caps is a day away.

Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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After Kelly Miller scores on the power play at 8:51 of the second to tie the game 2-2, the Rangers score three unanswered (Brian Leetch, Brian Noonan's second, Greg Gilbert) to take a 5-2 lead on the way to a 6-3 win.

Mike Richter makes 27 saves as the Rangers go to 5-0 for the playoffs.

WAS 1 1 1--3
NYR 2 2 2--6
(Rangers lead series, 1-0)
Goals: WAS--Pivonka, Miller, Ridley; NYR--Noonan 2, Matteau, Leetch, Gilbert, Messier. Assists: WAS--Cote 3, Jones, Ridley, Burridge; NYR--Kovalev 2, MacTavish 2, Zubov 2, Karpovtsev, Larmer, Nemchinov, Kocur. Goalies: WAS--Beaupre (24 shots-18 saves); NYR--Richter (30-27). Power plays: WAS--1 of 6; NYR--1 of 7.

Mike (Random Stat of the Night -- this is the last time the New York Rangers have won a Game 1. They're 0-9 in first games since) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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A'course, this is a different Rangers team. Battling their way through a period and a half to a 2-2 tie, the Blueshirts score three straight (Esa Tikkanen 10:44 2nd, Adam Graves 10:47 3rd, Stephane Matteau 11:06 3rd) to get a 5-2 win and a 2-0 series lead.

This is the first time in six games the Rangers fail to score on the power play; in fact, all seven goals are scored at even strength.

Meanwhile Viacom, which at the start of 1994 engineered a massive takeover of Rangers and MSG parent Paramount Communications, announces it is interested in selling the Madison Square Garden group, including the barn, the network, and the Knicks and Blueshirts. After acquiring both Paramount and Blockbuster Entertainment, Viacom is in dire need of a cash infusion. ITT and Cablevision will become the key players in negotiations. And don't get me started on THAT.

Meanwhile, by the way, the Devils are officially Facing Adversity. The Bruins have gone into the Swamp and come away with two wins, this one tonight by a 6-5 score in overtime. Joisey goes to Beantown with the possibility of never returning.

WAS 1 1 0--2
NYR 1 2 2--5
(Rangers lead series, 2-0)
Goals: WAS--Hatcher, Ridley; NYR--Kocur, Zubov, Tikkanen, Graves, Matteau. Assists: WAS--Ridley, Bondra, Poulin, Miller; NYR--Larmer 2, Karpovtsev, Nemchinov, Noonan, Tikkanen, Messier, Leetch, Kovalev. Goalies: WAS--Tabaracci (25 shots-20 saves); NYR--Richter (24-22). Power plays: WAS-- 0 of 4; NYR--0 of 4.

Mike (I knew this guy named Charlie in Boston that never returned) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Brian Leetch and Mark Messier score first-period power-play goals, at 4:35 and 13:57 respectively. Steve Larmer adds a second-period goal, and Mike Richter records his third playoff shutout with 21 saves. The Rangers are 7-0 in the playoffs.

Meanwhile, Jersey gets itself back on track with a 4-2 win at the Bahston Gahden. The Devils trail 2-1 in the series.

NYR 2 1 0--3
WAS 0 0 0--0
(Rangers lead series, 3-0)
Goals: NY--Leetch, Messier, Larmer. Assists: NY--Leetch, Kovalev, Beukeboom. Goalies: NY--Richter (21 shots-21 saves); WAS--Beaupre (21-18). Power plays: NY--2 of 4; WAS--0 of 4.

Mike (RIP Steve Chiasson) Fornabaio--mef17@oocities.com

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Meanwhile, Stan Fischler reports in The Hockey News's "Bluelines" that John Vanbiesbrouck may be headed from Florida to Philadelphia. Fischler scoops everyone by four years.

Mike (Don't know how he missed reporting Chris Gratton would be rented for $10 million) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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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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Leetch scores four points in what Mark Messier calls "one of the single greatest playoff performances I've seen in my career."

Meanwhile, Joisey wins 2-0 at the Swamp to move a game away from eliminating the Beaneaters and setting up the series we've all been waiting 11 years for.

WAS 2 0 1--3
NYR 3 0 1--4
(Rangers win series, 4-1)
Goals: WAS--Hatcher, S. Anderson, Cote; NYR--Graves 2, Tikkanen, Leetch. Assists: WAS--Ridley 2, Khristisch, Hunter, Miller; NYR--Leetch 3, Zubov 2, Anderson, Messier. Goalies: WAS--Beaupre (11 shots-8 saves), Tabaracci (25-24); NYR--Richter (31-28). Power plays: WAS-- 0 of 5; NYR--0 of 4.

(As referenced above, I mentioned this game in early February in a post to the mailing list that, really, sent me off on this 5YA tangent. Here's that post:

Stop, you're gonna make me cry again....

One tradition my brother and I have when we go to Ranger games is to go down to section 232 after the game, and sit under the Banner for a minute or two -- reflect a little on the big season, offer up a little prayer of thanksgiving, that kind of thing.

Monday, bored to tears, disgusted, angry, annoyed, and pretty much shocked by what we saw, we swung down there, and just sat there for a minute thinking exactly that, Anthony -- it's been five long years. May not seem like much, especially compared to 54, but man -- all I could say (and I said it a few times) was, "******, five years is a ******* eternity..."

Hard to believe.

Memories...hmm...so many.

------

Y'know, I'm gonna volunteer myself, if no one has any objection, to try out a "This Day in 1994" thing for down the stretch. It might not be every day, but I'll try to pop it up as often as possible...any objections? Won't be anything long (unless it's one that I feel like making personal)...I could do it to the "extra" list if it would be better that way...and if a miracle happens and this team becomes competitive again, I'll tone it down a bit...

-----

Meanwhile...1994.

Besides the obvious (crying like a baby on June 14, and jumping around screaming on May 27), one that comes back is May 9, Game 5 of the Capitals series. It was the end of my freshman year in college, and it was a rough personal time because of some things going on with a couple of friends at home. I was burned out by a longshot, but had two more things to do, both for the same music class: Study for the next day's final, and write a three-page paper on some music excerpt or other. I was pounding out the paper on the night of the fifth game, just sort of hoping it would be a blowout either way, so I wouldn't have to sit there with the radio on as I tried to concentrate on my work.

No luck, of course. It was a close game the whole way, and the second period ended with it a 3-2 contest. I looked at the computer screen. Just short of the two-full-page mark. I glanced around, as if my professor might be watching through the walls from across the campus. I 'select'ed 'all' and changed the font and size. Two-and-a-half pages.

I grabbed my wallet.

There was a little place in the student center called "The Pluck." Little chicken-wing place. And they were at the time the only place on campus (barring a couple of out-of-the-way dorms) that had cable. I had camped out there for the first three games of the Islander series, and for Game 3 against the Caps. For some reason, I still can't eat wings without thinking of posting back-to-back 6-0 scores on Hextall and McLennan.

I bought myself a six-pack of wings (not the three-alarm, thank you, but hot...). Sat down at an empty table near a TV.

Just in time for Sylvain freakin' Cote to score (:27) and tie the freakin' game.

Damn.

It stayed that way for most of the third, and all I could think of was that damn paper I'd left behind, almost finished. The agita of overtime with a curse hanging over our heads was bad enough. That I needed to finish that damn thing and maybe study a little bit, well, that was there too. There would be no more room to select all and expand. I needed to write and read, and for that I needed time. But I'd committed (I should have been committed, all right). I was there till it ended.

Fortunately, Sergei Zubov and Brian Leetch (two DEFENSEMEN!) found themselves on a 2-on-1 with just under four minutes left. Zubov sent Leetch in alone from the top of the circle. Leetch pounded it past Rick Tabaracci.

That win, for me, was one of the biggest. They had found so many ways to blow it in the second round over the past decade that I'd been watching tha t even blowing a 3-0 lead in games seemed possible. They were on to the semis for the first time since 1986, and it seemed that from there, anything could happen. It was a new start. The preliminaries were out of the way, it was time for Rangers-Devils, and the season was underway for real.

I got a B+ in the class. All things considered, I was happy.

----------

Other memories of 1993-94 (some I guess I'll touch on more on their "anniversaries"...):

--Miss the net, Tony, miss the net! Didn't it seem like every time you looked up, Amonte was shooting high and wide? Hell, he missed on a penalty shot in LA, Jan. 27, in overtime (Granato hopped off the bench with six seconds left to prevent a breakaway, creating the penalty-shot situation -- Messier then somehow scored the gamewinner after winning the faceoff and chasing down a Zubov dump-in).

--The Montreal comeback, Oct. 24. Kind of innocent, but the Rangers tied it 3-3 at the Garden in the last minute on an Adam Graves deflection of a Zubov shot. They wouldn't lose again until Nov. 27.

--Peter Andersson wins one for the Aces, March 2 vs. Quebec. I liked Andersson; can't tell you why. When he scored, he pointed up to his buds in the Black Aces box. I kept the picture and the clip from the News on my dorm room wall until I left in May.

--Deadline day. Mike Gartner goes, Craig MacTavish comes. Oh yeah, there was some other stuff, too...

--The Kovalev eternity shift, Feb. 23. I was with Alex: didn't seem like punishment to me.

--The countdown to 50 for Adam -- another thing I kept on the dorm wall.

--I'm big on hanging things on the wall. Even back at home, in 1990 I had drawn out four sweaters on two pieces of paper. One one I put the numbers 10 and 18, and the names "Miller" and "Ridley." On the other, I put the numbers 18 and 28, and the names "Granato" and "Sandstrom." They were in honor of the worst trades, I'd thought at the time, made by the last two GMs, and I promised they'd stay up on my bedroom wall until the Rangers won the Stanley Cup.

On June 17, 1994, after watching the parade, I went back up to my room and took them down.

I still have them, in a pile somewhere. They're buried. Kinda like the Curse.

Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Meanwhile, three days before the Rangers-Devils series begins, this is as good a time as any to mark one of the sadder moments in the run.

During the Washington series, a Ranger fan named Ceil Saidel, a season-ticket holder and longtime member of the Fan Club, was found murdered in her apartment in Kingsbridge Heights. Saidel's absence from her seat, in fact, was one of the first signs something was amiss.

Saidel's death at such a happy time seems like hideous timing. But she was not forgotten. After the Rangers win in June, Adam Graves made sure to honor her memory.

"I think she took the Garden ghost and kicked it right out of the rafters," Graves said.

Maybe so. In any case, five years later, we remember her now...

Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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One is pretty simple -- take a couple of great teams, put them in a deep playoff situation, and make them mighty annoyed at each other, and home ice isn't going to matter much. This is old-school, every-other-night hockey at its finest, and a couple of loud fans won't affect much.

Another recurring theme is the Rangers' brutal penchant throughout their final 14 games of allowing late tying goals. After Steve Larmer scores on the power play with 8:55 to go in the third to take a 3-2 lead, the Rangers protect the lead until the final minute. But at 19:17, Claude Lemieux scores to tie the game.

And that sets up another recurring theme -- double-overtime goals by guys named Stephane. Tonight, it's Stephane Richer from Bobby Carpenter at 35:23 of overtime. The Rangers get caught deep. Richer ends up in a one-on-one against Adam Graves; Graves misses. Mike Richter attempts a rare pokecheck, but Richer's shot rolls up the stick and past Richter into the net.

Round 1 to Joisey.

NJD 1 0 2 0 1--4
NYR 1 1 1 0 0--3
(New Jersey leads series, 1-0)
Goals: NJ--MacLean, Guerin, Lemieux, Richer; NY--Zubov, Nemchinov, Larmer. Assists: NJ--Nicholls 2, Albelin, Driver, MacLean, Carpenter; NY--Messier 2, Gilbert, Noonan. Goalies: NJ--Brodeur (38 shots-35 saves); NY--Richter (48-44). Power plays: NJ--0 of 2; NY--1 of 3.

Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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As you'd expect from one of the greatest playoff performers of all time, Mark Messier wills his team away from a 2-0 series deficit. And he basically gets it done all on the first shift of Game 2.

Messier sends Scott Stevens flying in the corner to the right of Martin Brodeur in the first 45 seconds, and he follows it up moments later by forcing Ken Daneyko into a turnover. Then, trying to clear the zone, Claude Lemieux is forced by Glenn Anderson into a turnover, and Messier takes the puck off the endboards and backhands it by Brodeur at 1:13 of the first period.

And that's just the first shift.

It takes another 40 minutes for the Rangers to score again, but the Rangers have established their game, and keep the pressure on, outshooting New Jersey 41-16 for the game: 11-5 in the first, 14-6 in the second, and 16-5 in the third. Three third-period goals (Sarge Nemchinov, Anderson, Adam Graves on the power play) give the Rangers a 4-0 win, evening the series 1-1.

Messier, incidentally, would do some other big things in this series. But what day is this, anyway?

NJD 0 0 0--0
NYR 1 0 3--4
(Series tied, 1-1)
Goals: NY--Messier, Nemchinov, Anderson, Graves. Assists: NY--Leetch 2, Noonan, Messier. Goalies: NJ--Brodeur (40 shots-36 saves), Terreri (1-1); NY--Richter (16-16). Power plays: NJ--0 of 3; NY--1 of 5.

Mike ("Have I said something amiss?" -- George Harrison) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Bernie Nicholls nearly kills Alexei Kovalev, cross-checking him down and then cross-checking him in the head behind the net. Kovalev will be okay, but Nicholls will be suspended for Game 4.

NYR 1 1 0 0 1--3
NJD 1 1 0 0 0--2
(Rangers lead series, 2-1)
Goals: NYR--Graves, Larmer, Matteau; NJ--Fetisov, Zelepukin. Assists: NYR--Messier, Beukeboom, Leetch, Graves; NJ--McKay, Holik, Driver, Richer. Goalies: NYR--Richter (31 shots-29 saves); NJ--Brodeur (50-47). Power plays: NYR--1 of 6; NJ--1 of 7.

Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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But when the evening came, we retired to my cousin's house. It was Game 4, after all.

The worst thing about it, though, was that three of my cousin's friends were Devils fans (well, one was. The other two were Islanders fans rooting for the Devils...). And this was not the night to be among Devils fans.

New Jersey scores two goals in the first on 11 shots -- Stephane Richer at 10:17, and Billy Guerin at 16:54. With that, Captain Hook pulls Mike Richter and inserts Glenn Healy for the first time this series (and, incidentally, the last time this playoff season). Healy holds the Devils off the board until the third period, and meanwhile benefits from a Stephane Matteau power-play goal in the second period.

But 13 minutes into the third, a miscommunication all but ends the game. A dump-in behind the Ranger net is stopped by Healy with Alexander Karpovtsev seemingly coming back for the puck. However, neither plays it, and then as both go to play it, Valeri Zelepukin swoops in to grab the puck and tuck it in. New Jersey wins, 3-1, despite missing the suspended Bernie Nicholls.

More disturbing, though, is the disappearance throughout much of the game of Mark Messier, Brian Leetch and Brian Noonan. All three are explained away as injuries. Only Noonan's appears legitimate enough to keep him out of a critical playoff game; he has a bum shoulder, though the Rangers would eventually say he has a bad knee (ah, the joy of playoff hockey). The teams go back to New York in two days for Game 5.

NYR 0 1 0--1
NJD 2 0 1--3
(Series tied, 2-2)
Goals: NY--Matteau; NJ--Richer, Guerin, Zelepukin. Assists: NY--Messier, Larmer; NJ--Dowd, MacLean, Stevens. Goalies: NY--Richter (11 shots-9 saves), Healy (14-13); NJ--Brodeur (21-20). Power plays: NY--1 of 4; NJ--1 of 4.

Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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"Everyone at this time of year is tired, Mike," Messier says, in Barry Meisel's _Losing the Edge_. "We've got a great opportunity here, we're so close. We just have to win this series and we'll win the Cup. You need to give us every chance to win."

Keenan promises that he understands. Meisel reports that at the end, Messier cries as the two embrace. When Messier returns to the dressing room, his report, simply, is, "That won't happen again."

Meanwhile that night, Vancouver takes a 3-1 lead over Toronto with a 2-0 win over the Leafs.

Mike (Well, it won't happen again HERE) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Bernie Nicholls, suspended from Game 4 for attempted decapitation of Alexei Kovalev, kills the Rangers. He scores shorthanded at 6:49 of the first to open the scoring, then scores a power-play goal at 10:37 of the third to make it 3-0. Mike Peluso and Tom Chorske also score for Joisey. Esa Tikkanen scores a meaningless goal with 3:27 to go, but it ends 4-1.

Police blotter: Jeff Beukeboom levels Stephane Richer from behind into the boards; the play goes unpenalized, but with New Jersey having screamed bloody murder over the Nicholls suspension, it's obvious what's going to happen tomorrow -- Beukeboom gets suspended for Game 6 at the Meadowlands.

Of course, now that means Beukeboom may have played his last game of the season. This is not the kind of Ranger team you give up on (1992? 1991? 1990?), but it's not going to be easy.

Scary stat -- through 1992, the Rangers had trailed 3-2 in 15 best-of-7 series in franchise history. They had never come back to win a series. Indeed, only three times had they forced a Game 7 in those 15 series, and in each of those three instances (1974, Philadelphia; 1971, Chicago; 1939, Boston), Game 6 was on Madison Square Garden ice.

NJD 1 0 3--4
NYR 0 0 1--1
(New Jersey leads series, 3-2)
Goals: NJ--Nicholls 2, Peluso, Chorske; NY--Tikkanen. Assists: NJ--Lemieux 2, Brodeur, MacLean, Albelin, Carpenter; NY--Zubov. Goalies: NJ--Brodeur (26 shots-25 saves); NY--Richter (25-21). Power plays: NJ--1 of 6; NY--0 of 3.

Mike (No snide tagline tonight. Not feeling too much like laughing...) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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I then get annoyed at myself, and remind myself there are two games to be played, dammit.

I obviously don't realize it at the time, wouldn't hear about it until that night, but sometime during that Beatles marathon, the captain of the New York Rangers says something about how the series will go back to the Garden for Game 7. The New York Post would turn it into a back-page guarantee on Wednesday, May 25, 1994: "We'll Win Tonight."

Meanwhile on May 24, the Canucks' Greg Adams scores 14 seconds into double overtime, giving Vancouver a 4-3 win and a 4-1 series win over Toronto. It's the Canucks' first trip to the finals since 1982. They await the Rangers-Devils winner.

On a completely different note -- timing is everything, the cliche goes, and sure enough, one week ago, Alan W. Pollack's fabulous "notes on" Beatles songs series hit the title track from the Beatles' last regularly-released album. If interested, get yourself to rec.music.beatles.moderated; with luck, "Notes on 'Let It Be' (LIB)" should still be there. If not, use

http://bobcat.bbn.com/bobcatftp/pub/beatles/noteson/lib

for a direct link through the web. The entire series is indexed at

http://bobcat.bbn.com/bobcatftp/pub/beatles/noteson.

Song titles are listed by initials with some exceptions. It's outstanding stuff.

And now back to your regularly scheduled hockey talk.

Mike (The movie version also says "there will be no sorrow," and that one in retrospect was the one that turned out right) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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It stays that way (2-0 and rocking) for a long time, thanks to Mike Richter standing on his damn head yet again. And there's something about this team that just won't let you give up hope. This isn't like any of those other teams, that folded at the sight of John F****** Druce or Bob Errey or Ken Morrow or some such. Regardless of how cynical you were, how pessimistic you knew you could be, well, this team was different. Mark Messier had guaranteed victory. And even if he wasn't quite sure how he was gonna pull it off, you had to believe him.

They just needed one before the third.

And they got it. Messier led a rush up the ice, gained the blueline, and dropped the puck to his right to Alexei Kovalev, shifted from second-line center up to Messier's right to try to create a little more offense. Kovalev carried to the boards with no one on him; he faked a shot to get the defense to the ice, got a couple of strides closer to the net, and rifled it past Brodeur at 18:19 of the second.

Regardless of what anyone tells you, that was the most important goal of the playoff year.

And that sets the stage for the reason, ultimately, I have a white No. 11 sweater hanging in my closet right now.

And Howie Rose describes Messier's natural hat trick a hell of a lot better than I ever could (and I've tried).

"Brian Leetch stickhandles past Carpenter, headmans on the right wing to Kovalev, moving in over the Devil line, cuts to the slot, feeds Messier, backhands he SCORES!" (Messier 8 (Kovalev, Leetch) 2:48)

"Kovalev's got it, cross-ice Leetch, moving to the New Jersey line, drops it for Kovalev, left-circle slap shot save, rebound SCORE! MESSIER! MESSIER has cashed in the rebound with 7:48 to go in the third period, and the Rangers take a 3-2 lead!" (Messier 9 (Kovalev, Leetch) 12:12)

"Off the draw, Lidster winds it around, not out, Messier gets it back, shoots it all the way Down AND SCORES! MESSIER hits the open net with a minute-45 to go in the third period! THAT'S the hat trick for Captain Mark Messier!" (Messier 10 18:15 (sh))

Short version: Promise Kept.

Incidentally, near the end of the game, pugilist Bernie Nicholls (he was in this series, anyway) nearly sets off a brawl after running several Rangers and, touching up for the delayed penalty, firing the puck in the general direction of Glenn Anderson's head (Anderson had taken a dumb slashing penalty on Nicholls minutes earlier, the minor that set up Messier's shorthanded heroics). Anderson gets an unsportsmanlike minor and a misconduct; Nicholls gets a double-minor for roughing and for high-sticking. Time of the penalties: 19:40.

Hopefully Devils fans in attendance enjoyed that. It was the last time that they could chant that number with any significance behind it.

NYR 0 1 3--4
NJD 2 0 0--2
(Series tied, 3-3)
Goals: NY--Messier 3, Kovalev; NJ--Niedermayer, Lemieux. Assists: NY--Kovalev 2, Leetch 2, Messier; NJ--Niedermayer, Nicholls. Goalies: NY--Richter (30 shots-28 saves); NJ--Brodeur (35-32). Power plays: NY--0 of 3; NJ--0 of 3.

Mike ("And the Rangers have made it to Friday." --Howie Rose) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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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.

Anchored the Boring Homepage, 5/27/99-7/15/99.

Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Click here for the Opening Tirade Archive or click here to return to the Boring Homepage.

I go back to sleep. :-)

Mike (You think I'm kidding, don't you?) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Game 1 of the Rangers' first foray to the Stanley Cup Finals since 1979 is marked by a resounding "ding," as Brian Leetch rang a shot off the crossbar above Vancouver Canucks goalie Kirk McLean with about 45 seconds remaining in the first overtime period.

Pavel Bure chipped the rebound past Jeff Beukeboom, and Cliff Ronning rushed after it, and Greg Adams followed to his right, with only Esa Tikkanen back. Ronning gained the zone, got to the left circle, then slipped the pass to Adams coming through the middle. Adams ripped it over Mike Richter's glove and under the fateful crossbar for a 3-2 overtime win, giving the Canucks a 1-0 series lead.

What's probably most painful about this game is that the Rangers dominated, forcing McLean to make 52 saves, including 17 in overtime. Steve Larmer scored 3:32 into the game, and the 1-0 lead held up for almost 42 minutes before Bret Hedican, acquired from St. Louis in the Petr Nedved fiasco in March, tied it. Alex Kovalev untied it at 8:29, but a Martin Gelinas deflection of Cliff Ronning's shot at 19:00 gets past Richter, the third last-minute tying goal the Rangers have allowed this playoff season. In fact, three of their four overtime games were created by allowing a last-minute goal.

Those with nervous stomachs will be happy to know that the Rangers won't play another overtime game this year.

VAN 0 0 2 1--3
NYR 1 0 1 0--2
(Vancouver leads series, 1-0)
First period--1, NY Larmer 6 (Kovalev, Leetch) 3:32. Penalties--Wells, NY (cross-checking), 1:47; Linden, Van (tripping), 2:26; McIntyre, Van (roughing), 8:05; Lowe, NY (roughing), 8:05; Craven, Van (slashing), 10:35; Beukeboom, NY (interference), 15:54.
Second period--None. Penalties--Messier, NY (hooking), :20; Lidster, NY (tripping), 8:49; Courtnall, Can (interference), 13:18; Momesso, Van (goalie interference), 16:15; Beukeboom, NY (high-sticking), 19:34.
Third period--2, Vancouver Hedican 1 (Adams, Lumme) 5:45. 3, New York Kovalev 6 (Leetch, Zubov) 8:29. 4, Vancouver Gelinas 5 (Ronning, Momesso) 19:00. Penalties--None.
Overtime--5, Vancouver Adams 6 (Bure, Ronning) 19:28. Penalties--Momesso, Van (roughing), 9:31; Gilbert, NY (roughing), 9:31.
Power play opportunities-- Vancouver 0 of 5. New York 0 of 1. Goalies--Vancouver, McLean 13-5 (54 shots-52 saves). New York, Richter, 12-5 (31-28). Att--18,200.

Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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The Canucks hit four posts. The Rangers score one per period, get screwed out of a goal, and finally protect a last-minute lead to win 3-1. The series was tied going out to Vancouver.

Doug Lidster (Doug Lidster?) opens the scoring, crashing the net and pounding the puck past Kirk McLean at 6:22. Sergio Momesso (as we've mentioned before, remember that name) evens it at 14:04 of the first.

In the second comes, perhaps, Gartner-trade apologists' best ammunition.

A minute into an Adam Graves minor for tripping Dave Babych, Mark Messier, fresh off the bench, breaks up a Trevor Linden cross-point pass. Messier chips it out ahead, chasing it all the way down the middle of the ice, with Jeff Brown chasing him. It chips to the front of the net, finally, and Kirk McLean pokes it away from Messier, and it rolls behind the net, with Messier's momentum carrying him back there with it.

Much (including this space)-maligned Glenn Anderson, though, follows the whole way. He outskates Jyrki Lumme to the front of the net, stays neatly out of the crease (it wouldn't have mattered, of course, because this is pre-obligatory crease replay), and bangs home Messier's backhand pass to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead.

It was almost 3-1 in the third with about three minutes to go. Esa Tikkanen, foreshades of a play three years later (2YA off the camera), guns a shot from the left-wing circle that goes off McLean's catching glove and...

Off the elbow between the crossbar and the left post? Off the curved inside back bar of the net, a goal?

From one angle, it appears the former (the puck never seems to disappear, as it probably should were it in). From another angle, it appears the latter (flashbulbs and awkward camera angles make it hard to say with absolute certainty, but it seems to tuck itself briefly into the corner of the net). In the era before video replay was refined to its current state (say what you will about the crease rule, replay's pretty good now for puck-in-the-net), the most crucial angle -- directly over the goal line -- isn't there. In its absence, referee Bill McCreary and any and all video replay judges rule the former. It remains 2-1.

It stays that way into the final minute, when the Rangers have been at their worst this playoff season, giving away three one-goal leads in their last eight last minutes.

In the last 10 seconds, it almost became 4-for-9.

Martin Gelinas is stoned on a wide-open redirection off a pass from Brown in the right corner. The puck goes across to the other boards, where Leetch recovers the puck, and flings it all the way down the ice. It goes in with three-plus seconds left on the clock to clinch the win.

Game 3 is Thursday, June 4 at Pacific Coliseum.

From the notebook -- Sergei Zubov injures his rib cage on a hard hit by Gelinas with about five minutes remaining in the third. He will be forced to miss Game 3. . . . Kevin Lowe finally has to miss time because of the shoulder he separated late in the first overtime of Game 7 of the Devils series. Alexander Karpovtsev replaces him in the lineup, but after being on the ice when Vancouver scores its goal, barely plays again. . . . Rangers assistant coach Dick Todd takes a puck off of Pavel Bure's skate and off the side of his head near his left eye, with 30 seconds left in the first period. Todd will take 15 stitches to close the cut, but he's a hockey coach -- he returns 4:27 into the second. . . . Midway through the third, J.D. would say the series should be best-of-9 -- "it's so good," Davidson says. In hindsight, I'm surprised the hockey curse gods didn't think of this.

VAN 1 0 0--1
NYR 1 1 1--3
(Series tied, 1-1)
First period -- 1, New York, Lidster 1, 6:22. 2, Vancouver, Momesso 3 (Ronning, Hedican), 14:04. Penalties -- Craven, Van (tripping), 2:03. Lidster, NY (interference), 7:44. Hunter, Van, misconduct, 15:26. Anderson, NY (interference), 16:55.
Second period -- 3, New York, Anderson 2 (Messier), 11:42 (sh). Penalties -- Brown, Van (hooking), 4:27. Matteau, NY (hooking), 6:12. Graves, NY (tripping), 10:35. Antoski, Van (roughing), 13:58. Tikkanen, NY (goalie interference), 17:08.
Third period -- 4, New York, Leetch 7, 19:56 (en). Penalties -- Lidster, NY (interference), 1:43. Diduck, Van (high-sticking), 4:32; Kovalev, NY (high-sticking), 4:32. Brown, Van (roughing), 15:29; Gilbert, NY (roughing), 15:29.
Shots on goal -- Vancouver 10-6-13 -- 29. New York 14-13-13 -- 40.
Power-play opportunities -- Vancouver 0 of 6; New York 0 of 4. Goalies -- Vancouver, McLean, 13-6 (39 shots-37 saves). New York, Richter, 13-5 (29-28). Attendance -- 18,200.
Referee -- Bill McCreary. Linesmen -- Kevin Collins, Gerard Gauthier.

Mike (May 31-June 2 were the longest three days of my life -- to that point) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike (Let the games begin!) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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--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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But this time, the Rangers came from 2-0 down at the end of the first period to beat Vancouver 4-2, taking a 3-1 lead back to Madison Square Garden.

The Canucks grab the lead at 13:25, with Adam Graves in the box for holding, on a Trevor Linden goal, his 10th of the playoffs. Less than a minute later, Mark Messier is assessed a major for taking Sergio Momesso hard into the endboards behind Mike Richter; the boarding penalty, though, does not carry a game misconduct, so the captain, unlike Pavel Bure after his high-sticking infraction in Game 3, remains in the game. But after Linden gets called for holding Jeff Beukeboom's stick at 15:07, Cliff Ronning scores at 16:19, unmarked following Bure, who was neutralized 1-on-1 by Sergei Zubov, returning to the lineup from a Game 2 ribcage injuries. The Canucks take that lead into the dressing room, despite the teams' trading penalties at the end of the period (Geoff Courtnall for interference at 17:54; Esa Tikkanen for roughing at 18:45).

And though the third period of Game 5 would be more eventful, the second period of Game 4 might have been the most fun Rangers fans would have through a period in the finals. After killing the remnants of Tikkanen's penalty and a Lidster penalty for holding Courtnall, the Rangers get on the board. Brian Leetch knocks the puck away from John McIntyre after a bad clear. Greg Gilbert recovers and backhands it off the boards to Craig MacTavish, who brings it into the Canucks zone, gives to Leetch, and goes to the net, as does Joe Kocur. Leetch's drive through all that traffic from the left-wing boards beats Kirk McLean, giving Leetch his 10th goal of the postseason at 4:03.

Leetch's role in the drama was far from over, because a minute and a half later, after Richter makes six saves in rapid succession, the play comes back to the Canucks' zone, and Leetch fires in for a loose puck alone in front, just missing the net on a backhand. As he tries to get back, he accidentally tips the puck out of the zone, where Bure rushes ahead to carry down ice ahead of everyone. Leetch has little chance to catch him; Bure gets a step ahead at the redline, and Leetch has little choice but to pull him down. Terry Gregson makes the call -- penalty shot at 6:31 of the second.

You might want to flash back to the All-Star Game in January, when Richter won himself a car mostly on the strength of stopping Pavel Bure, who kept going back to his forehand, on breakaways. I know I did while waiting for the Russian to shoot; that forehand move was Bure's favorite, he used it to eliminate Calgary on an overtime breakaway as the Canucks came from 3-1 down in the first round. You felt pretty confident about Richter, but you knew a goal was probably going to send the series back to New York tied.

The tension (terror?) builds as Bure circles, waiting for the signal to skate in against Richter, who has already stopped Randy Wood on a playoff penalty shot in 1990. Given the word, Bure finally starts from his own blueline. The lefthanded shot skates it straight ahead to the top of the circles on his forehand; he starts looking and goes backhand, forehand, and then makes his move in earnest, with a sharp move backhand against Richter, who is about five feet above the top of the crease, to back the goalie up. He sharply goes back to the forehand, but Richter has him timed perfectly, and reacts perfectly to the move. As Bure tries to tuck it in at the left post, Richter shoots the right leg out and knocks the puck away. It remains 2-1, and the 1994 Finals have their Defining Moment.

Richter continues to make saves, 12 in all for the period, before Greg Adams is given a minor for boarding at 18:55. It's not all that different from the play on which Messier was given a major in the first (one Ranger fan in 1994 was noted to have remarked, at the time, of complaining that Zubov just wasn't as good an actor as "that snake" Momesso). Where it would be different, though, was in the results of the power play.

With time ticking down on the period, Zubov -- who, Barry Meisel reports in his _Losing the Edge_ a year later, had to be convinced he could play through his ribcage pain and complete the playoff season -- just missed the net on a drive from the left point. Messier controls a bouncing puck on the carom on the left side, and dishes to Zubov at the point; Zubov fakes, fires through three bodies, and beats McLean to tie the game at 19:44. The game was tied going to the third.

It stays that way through three power plays (two for Vancouver, including a sloppy-change too-many-men penalty on the Rangers) and a 4-on-4. Finally, at 14:31, Martin Gelinas tries to come down the right side 1-on-1 against Kevin Lowe; when Lowe cuts him off, Gelinas grabs his right arm, spins him around and slings him into the endboards. Gelinas gets a minor for roughing.

The Rangers score their second power-play goal of the game on their fifth opportunity. Leetch rushes end-to-end, beats Brian Glynn at the Canucks' blueline, and eases the puck to Kovalev, who's followed him into the zone and cut to the net. Kovalev picks the puck up, fights off a slash, and flips the puck past McLean at 15:05. The Rangers have their first lead of the night.

The scoring ended with what had become a common sight at Pacific Coliseum -- a Steve Larmer weird-bounce, fluky goal off of Dave Babych. Larmer, who had been cut off by Bret Hedican a shift before on a partial breakaway, tries to dump in from 95 feet on the right side. The puck goes through Babych's legs just inside the blueline and off his right skate, and redirects between Kirk McLean's left pad and the left post. McLean, standing straight up, has no chance to stop the puck, and the Rangers take a 4-2 lead with 2:04 remaining. It's a four-point night for Leetch, the No. 1 star for the second straight game; a three-point night for Zubov; and a 3-1 series lead for New York.

Curses? Not for this bunch. The Rangers, the best team in the National Hockey League for almost the entire season, had a chance to wrap up the Stanley Cup in five games June 9 at the Garden. It could be the first time in franchise history that the Cup would be won by the Rangers on Garden ice. Of course, that last step would be a doozy...

NYR 0 2 2--4
VAN 2 0 0--2
(New York leads series, 3-1)
First period -- 1, Vancouver, Linden 10 (Lumme, Brown), 13:25 (pp). 2, Vancouver, Ronning 5 (Bure, Craven), 16:19. Penalties -- Courtnall, Van (elbowing), 3:11; Beukeboom, NY (high-sticking), 6:35; Graves, NY (holding), 13:02; Messier, NY, major (boarding), 14:17; Linden, Van (holding stick), 15:07; Courtnall, Van (interference), 17:54; Tikkanen, NY (roughing), 18:45.
Second period -- 3, New York, Leetch 10 (MacTavish, Gilbert), 4:03. 4, New York, Zubov 5 (Messier, Leetch), 19:44 (pp). Penalties -- Lidster, NY (holding), 1:13; Brown, Van (tripping), 7:19; Lidster, NY (holding), 16:58; Adams, Van (boarding), 18:55.
Third period -- 5, New York, Kovalev 8 (Leetch, Zubov), 15:05 (pp). 6, New York, Larmer 8 (Zubov, Leetch), 17:56. Penalties -- NY bench, served by Kocur (too many men), 3:53; Lumme, Van (holding), 4:48; Tikkanen, NY (roughing), 10:42; Diduck, Van (roughing), 10:42; Messier, NY (slashing), 11:29; Gelinas, Van (roughing), 14:31.
Shots on goal -- New York 8-8-11 -- 27; Vancouver 8-12-10 -- 30.
Missed penalty shot -- Bure, Van, 6:31 second.
Power-play opportunities -- New York 2 of 5; Vancouver 1 of 10. Goalies -- New York, Richter, 15-5 (30 shots-28 saves); Vancouver, McLean, 13-8 (27-23). Attendance -- 16,150.
Referee -- Terry Gregson. Linesmen -- Kevin Collins, Gerard Gauthier.

Mike (These next two days would be the longest of my life) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Mike (Talk about how history woulda changed -- can you chant "1955"?) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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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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Mom tells me I'm going to the show. I calmly tell her once again that the only show I am leaving the house for tomorrow involves a trip to Vancouver. She presses, and I say something hysterical about how I'll never forgive any of them if the Rangers win and I'm not watching. Mom offers me this -- go to dinner with everyone up in Danbury, and then watch the game at my aunt and uncle's house. I chortle and counteroffer -- I stay home.

Dad, who seems to have been weighing the familial aspects of this whole thing against his own fandom, interjects that he's not going to Candlewood, either. I smile, since it wouldn't have been the same if they won without him there to scream about it with me. We look at each other, and the thought seems to hit our faces at the same time -- the Rangers are going to lose Game 6, if for no other reason than our changing plans to watch it.

Mike (And yes, if I'd have gone, they'd have won in six. Isn't that what this game is all about?) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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And please pardon your not-so-fearless reporter's fear, but I'm still not gonna. This one was just too nervous, too tentative, too tight a Ranger effort, even on the road, for a team with so many veterans.

Game 4 of the Devils series was just frustrating; Game 5 of the Devils series was merely depressing. Here, the Cup was all but theirs. To lose the series now would be the ultimate in hockey-god laughers. This was the pain, all 54 years of it, all over again.

Jeff Brown starts it with a power-play goal at 9:42 straight off a Trevor Linden faceoff win; Brian Leetch had gone in the box at 9:39.

Geoff Courtnall makes it 2-0 midway through the second, but Alexei Kovalev's ninth of the playoffs cuts the lead to 2-1 on the power play at 14:42.

That's as close as the Rangers would get. Brown gets his second at 8:35 of the third, and at 18:28 of the third, Courtnall beats Richter -- but referee Bill McCreary isn't sure. Play goes on, and after about 45 more seconds elapse, the Rangers score. Replay, though, confirms Courtnall's shot went into the net and came back out; the time is put back on the board, but so is the Vancouver goal. It ends 4-1.

Vancouver is now 5-for-5 when fighting to prevent elimination this playoff season. It's not quite the 8-for-9 that the '75 Islanders were, but it's getting scary. Game 7 is Tuesday, June 14, 1994.

NYR 0 1 0--1
VAN 1 1 2--4
(Series tied, 3-3)
First period -- 1, Vancouver, Brown 5 (Linden), 9:42 (pp). Penalties -- Beukeboom, NY (elbowing), 3:02; Leetch, NY (interference), 9:39.
Second period -- 2, Vancouver, Courtnall 8 (Lumme, Bure), 12:29. 3, New York, Kovalev 9 (Messier, Leetch), 14:42 (pp). Penalties -- Momesso, Van (interference), 2:26; Diduck, Van (tripping), 7:27; McIntyre, Van (goalie interference), 13:23.
Third period -- 4, Vancouver, Brown 6, 8:35. 5, Vancouver, Courtnall 9 (Lafayette, Diduck), 18:28. Penalties -- None.
Shots on goal -- New York 7-12-10 -- 29; Vancouver 16-8-7 -- 31.
Power-play opportunities -- New York 1 of 3; Vancouver 1 of 2. Goalies -- New York, Richter, 15-7 (31 shots-27 saves); Vancouver, McLean, 15-8 (29-28). Attendance -- 16,150.
Referee -- Bill McCreary. Linesmen -- Kevin Collins, Gerard Gauthier.

Mike (oh, and I'm told Candlewood Playhouse's performance of "West Side Story" was a little strangely executed, but sung well) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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PS -- Chris -- A _monster_!?!?!?!

Now that's beautiful. :-)

Has 6+-yr-old Andrew heard this story yet?

Meanwhile north in Vancouver, pugilistic Rangers winger-filmmaker Nick Kypreos home-videos roommate Esa Tikkanen as they pack for the trip home to New York. In a profanity-laced tirade (we think) later shown on MSG, Tikkanen says (we think) that the Rangers would beat the Canucks in Game 7 (we think) in "Niw Yaorck, Niw Yaorck" (we think). It's not quite a Messier guarantee, but since we love Esa, we'll happily accept it. We think.

Mike (And the only Kato I'm concerned with is Kevin McCarthy) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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A temporarily unemployed college student on summer break, I spend this Monday furiously sorting baseball cards, drinking way too much orange soda and root beer (diet, though if you've ever seen me you know it didn't help much), listening to WFAN, and shooting pucks in the driveway. The hours seem to take days to pass.

In New York, Mike Keenan reiterates his intent to remain coach of the Rangers in 1994-95 and beyond. "I am not going to Detroit. I'll be coaching the New York Rangers next year unless my bosses decide I won't be," he says. "I signed a five-year contract when I came here. There is no escape clause. I'm not looking for an escape clause. I came here to coach the New York Rangers . . . hopefully for a five-year duration, if not more. My mission here is not to win the Stanley Cup, but to win the Stanley Cup a number of times."

Mike (Your mission here, should you choose to accept it: Did Iron Mike lie?) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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(I would love to try to send this at 10:59 p.m., but I'll be at work, so here goes.)

There was the eternity that took 54 years to elapse.

The eternity that it took for Saturday to turn into Tuesday.

The eternity of Tuesday morning turning into Tuesday afternoon turning into Tuesday evening (meatloaf, rice on the side) turning into Tuesday at 8 p.m. And the eternity of waiting for the anthems to get done.

And mixed somewhere in there is the eternity of waiting for Brian Leetch to shoot.

The net was a chasm, narrowing by the instant.

Mark Messier had blown by Pasha Bure on the right side in the neutral zone. He made a move to his left and dropped it off to Sergei Zubov, a play that drew everyone to the high right side of the ice.

Brian Leetch came into the zone and went to the left circle, untouched by anyone. Zubov had a wide-open passing lane to him. He used it.

Time stood absolutely, perfectly, heartwrenchingly still. Adam Graves picked off the defense at the top of the crease. Kirk McLean never managed to get across. And after another 54 years of waiting, Leetch drove it into the heart of the net, his 11th of the playoffs and a (by-a-defenseman record-tying) fifth in the finals at 11:02.

For the first time in five games, the Rangers had scored the first goal.

Three minutes and change later, with Jyrki Lumme in the box for cross-checking Craig MacTavish, it became 2-0, from a source unlikely in his unlikeliness.

Adam Graves had not scored a goal -- been stuck on nine in the playoffs -- since the first period of Game 3. Game 3 of the Devils series. May 19. It had been almost a month.

Adam Graves had been almost missing in action.

But again, Zubov set up the action, carrying through the middle. He flicked the puck off Murray Craven's stick to the left side to Alexei Kovalev, who streaked down the left side and fed Graves, wide open in the middle of the still-assembling box, in the slot. Graves went stick side. Beat McLean. New York 2, Vancouver 0.

They could feel it. Jeff Beukeboom injured his knee on a knee-on-knee hit from Shawn Antoski in the second; not wanting to leave, he remained on the bench though unable to skate. On the same shift, Nick Kypreos, in the lineup replacing the injured Joey Kocur, almost decapitated himself Brian-Leetch-in-St.-Louis style while trying to throw a check along the boards.

The lead held up into the second period, and the Rangers even had an early-second power play. But midway through that man-advantage, Leetch pulled down Murray Craven. Trevor Linden, coming off the bench for McLean on the delayed penalty, took a pass from Brian Glynn at center ice a step ahead of Leetch; with Leetch tugging at him the whole way, Linden skated in and flipped the puck through Mike Richter to cut the lead to 2-1.

Eight minutes and a Richter skate-save on Linden later, and with Dave Babych in the box for tripping Steve Larmer at 12:46, the Rangers scored again.

Zubov backhanded it into the right circle to Brian Noonan, whose flip ahead to Graves was blocked. Noonan recovered and backhanded it into McLean's pad; with Graves diving and Messier swatting, the puck trickled into the net.

Officially, it will forever be recorded as Messier 12 (Graves, Noonan) 13:29. Ask any three people, though, and you might get three different accounts of that goal.

There are those who never see Graves nor Messier get a piece of the rebound, as a Vancouver defender has the puck bounce off his glove and into the net, so the goal should be Noonan's. Messier's jabbing swipe at the puck, some say, connected, and the goal should be the Captain's. Some claim Graves, diving across the top of the crease, got a piece of the puck as it bounced away from McLean and redirected it into the net, and it should be Graves's second of the game.

Officially, though, Messier gets it. And because of what that goal will become, it's fine, because the symbolism just works better that way. The symbolism works any way you want to slice it (Noonan because of the overhaul at the trading deadline, Graves because it was his season, Messier because he was the Messiah), but it works best for the Captain.

Richter, meanwhile, robbed Cliff Ronning at the other end shortly thereafter to preserve the two-goal lead, enhancing his own Conn Smythe bid. It remains 3-1 at the end of the second, and the impossible dream is 20 minutes away.

They are the longest 20 minutes of anyone's life. An eternity.

One minute. The Canucks come out hitting, but the Rangers control the puck. Two minutes. The MacTavish line checks hard and gets an icing. Three minutes. Brian Noonan gets stoned by McLean's stick, and later on the same shift just can't push the puck past McLean from the side of the net. Four minutes. The Rangers' aggressive forecheck keeps the puck out of their zone for minutes at a time. But when the Canucks get in, Bure breaks ahead and gets pulled down by Tikkanen at 4:16.

Leetch clears off the draw, but the Canucks gain possession in the zone. Jeff Brown keeps an errant pass in the zone, and a tic-tac-toe play to Linden at the post to Richter's right gives Linden his second goal, this one on the power play, at 4:50. It's a desperate 3-2.

Five minutes in. Nathan LaFayette almost beats Zubov through the middle, but gets a good shot nonetheless, which Richter has to kick away (and which produces a rebound MacTavish has to kick out of the slot). Six minutes. Leetch barely breaks up a 2-on-1 when Craven's pass dribbles too softly across the high slot. Seven minutes. Linden gets a backhander through traffic from the corner that doesn't miss sneaking through Richter by much.

What year was this, again? It felt like 1998 by now.

Eight minutes. Alexei Kovalev's shot gets blocked as Steve Larmer gets crashed into the net by Bure. Nine minutes. Doug Lidster strips Greg Adams as Adams tries to break around him toward the net from the left-wing boards. Ten minutes, halfway. Kovalev takes a long pass and feeds Larmer in the slot for a good shot that's stopped.

At 10:55, MacTavish and Linden wrestle in front of the net and are both called for roughing, setting up two minutes of 4-on-4. Off the draw, Kevin Lowe hits the left post. Messier and Graves just miss connection on passes. Larmer's wraparound goes through the crease. With the exception of one aborted Bure rush, the Rangers dominate the 4-on-4. There are seven minutes remaining. Noonan is blocked in front. The Canucks rush back, and Martin Gelinas hits the outside of the post from the right circle on a beautiful passing play; the puck bounces back and hits Richter's arm and trickles back into the crease; Richter reaches and throws his glove at the puck, but Lowe pulls it out of the crease.

Six and a half minutes. Geoff Courtnall streaks down the left wing and fires a shot that Richter stops and pushes to the corner to his right. Courtnall recovers and centers to a streaking LaFayette. With Kypreos trying to grab him, LaFayette has at least half a net to shoot at. He lifts it about three and a half feet off the ice to the glove side. Had he shot a half-inch left, the game would have been tied. Instead, a nickname is forged from the iron the puck hit.

"Ding."

Six minutes. With Larmer knocked over in the crease, Kovalev nearly beats McLean as the net is knocked off. "Where's the puck?" Sam Rosen screams for the second time in eight games. This time, though, we were asking "Where's the clock?" Why wasn't it running any faster?

Five minutes. The chances stay mostly to the outside, but the Canucks are in possession of the puck more than they have all period. Four minutes. The Rangers get called for an icing that it seems the Canucks defense could have caught before it crossed the goal line. Three minutes. Kovalev keeps a puck in the Canucks zone, but Tikkanen is swamped as he tries to get free along the boards.

Two and a half. Hedican shoots wide on the rush. Two. Zubov clears to center, but the Canucks recover. Lumme keeps an attempted clear. Ronning gets a pass in the slot almost alone, but he doesn't seem ready and can't get a shot off as Zubov recovers. One and a half. The Rangers ice the puck as Larmer is stickless.

Time out, Vancouver, 1:31 remaining. Neil Smith moves from the eyebrow of the Garden to seats in the reds.

Sam Rosen reminds MSG viewers (factoid of the day: this is likely the last ever Stanley Cup Finals series to be shown on local television; the television contract now stipulates that all semifinal and final games are to be shown on either Fox/ABC or ESPN) that the Rangers have blown three last-minute leads in the last two rounds. Thanks, Sam. Of course, if he'd wanted to be particularly painful about it, he could have made this point: in the Devils series, New Jersey scored late to tie the game in Game 1 and Game 7. In the finals, the Canucks had done it in Game 1. The pattern was eerily holding true to form.

Craven wins the draw from MacTavish. Lumme carries down the left side, reminiscent of Leetch's goal in Game 7 of the Devils series; Leetch must be used to it, because he slides to stop Lumme before he can get to the front. There's 1:20 left.

Craven beats Messier. Lumme's shot is blocked. Leetch clears with 1:05. One minute remains as McLean goes to the bench. The Canucks momentarily have seven men on the ice, one of many awful changes in the game. Lumme dumps in with 40 seconds left; Richter stops the puck behind the net, and Zubov backhands it into the crowd. The clock runs down to 36.2 seconds after Zubov's clear, but time, properly, is added back to the clock. There are 37.8 seconds left.

Messier win the draw, to Richter's left, from Linden, and Zubov fires it all the way around from behind the net. It goes all the way down. Jeff Brown chases it as it trickles slowly down; Brown almost stops, and the puck makes it to the goal line.

Somehow, it's called icing with 28.2 seconds left. Steve Larmer is livid.

But it's icing, and Messier and Craven go to Richter's right. Messier wins the draw to the boards, but Courtnall keeps it in. Momesso centers, but it deflects away. The Canucks get it to Bure at the right point for a shot that is blocked to the corner to Richter's right; Geoff Courtnall tries to put it to the crease, but it hits Zubov's skate. Zubov pushes it around the boards; it hits Larmer, who backhands it out of the zone and all the way down the ice as the clock ticked from eight down to seven, six, five, four, three, two...

Sam Rosen screamed. The people at the Garden almost took the roof off the joint. The players on the bench began jumping up and down, as did my father and my brother.

I couldn't. I saw Kevin &^$$&@% Collins poised to call icing. It had happened again -- Bure chased it and had ample opportunity to play the puck, but Collins was calling for icing, and I was screaming expletives at him and "wait, wait, wait, wait" to my family. The Canucks touched up, halting the celebration with 1.1 seconds left.

And to make matters worse, they put more time up on the clock. There were 1.6 seconds remaining.

My Dad, who had earlier promised some degree of icky medical condition should the game go to overtime, turned with a deranged chuckle and said, "This is Groundhog Day, isn't it?"

I got the point. Remember the Bill Murray movie? Murray's character, Phil Connors, relives one entire day of his life every day until he "gets it right." Of course. The Canucks were going to keep getting time added to the clock until they "got it right" -- scored. Ah, those hockey gods. What a way to keep a curse alive!

So there is one last eternity -- the eternity before the puck is dropped. Craig MacTavish versus Pavel Bure. Bure tries to push it forward, but MacTavish and Messier tie up his stick and tie up his arms, and MacTavish kicks the puck to the corner. Time runs out on the Canucks. And time runs out on The Curse at 10:59 p.m. EDT, June 14, 1994.

Messier leaps in the air. Players charge off the bench, flinging equipment. Steve Larmer, as always, finishes his check. Alexei Kovalev jumps into Colin Campbell's arms. Messier and Keenan have a long embrace. The Rangers Victory Song is played into the din, meaning something for the first time in 54 years. The Black Aces appear wearing Starter T-shirts bearing the amazing message: 1994 Stanley Cup Champions.

But it wasn't over yet. The celebration is on, but it's still not official.

The teams shake hands, but it's still not official.

Brian Leetch and his 34 playoff points deservedly win the Conn Smythe Trophy, the first American ever to win it, but it's still not official.

Then, the Grail arrives. Commissioner Gary Bettman stands beside it and speaks these words.

"Well New York, after 54 years, your long wait is over. Congratulations to the Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks for a spectacular finals. Congratulations to Bob Gutkowski, Neil Smith and Mike Keenan, the entire Ranger organization, and most importantly, the players. Captain Mark Messier, come get the Stanley Cup."

Messier, the first captain ever acquired in a trade to win the Cup, does so, wildly saluting the crowd to the strains of Tina Turner's "Simply the Best." Messier pauses for a photo opportunity with Bettman, and convulses with laughter and ecstasy. The last flashbulb goes off, and Messier, wearing a Rangers sweater, holds the Cup on his own. Then he lifts it above his head.

It's official. The eternity is over.

Messier holds the Cup up, looking up to his family in the stands. He hands the Grail to Lowe, who gives it to Leetch. It goes to Graves, to Jay Wells (who gives it a big kiss), to Tikkanen, to Larmer, to Greg Gilbert. Eddie Olczyk gets it next, and gives a huge whoop. Then to Sergei Nemchinov, Kovalev, and then to Richter. Kypreos gets it next and goes absolutely wild. Noonan holds it for an instant, and Matteau joins him and they hold it together, the two role players from Chicago joined for a moment together. Zubov, Kocur, Beukeboom and Glenn Healy get it next, then Lidster, Mike Hudson and Glenn Anderson. Anderson gives it a good long skate before Alexander Karpovtsev, the fourth of the first four Russians to get their names on the Cup, gets his chance to hold it. Messier takes it back, and brings it over to Mike Keenan. He gives it back to Messier, who takes it down the bench to Neil Smith. Smith hands it to Colin Campbell, who gives it to Dick Todd, who hands it back to Messier, who takes it to center ice for the traditional on-ice team photo.

As the team comes together around the Cup, they begin chanting their practice mantra -- "Heave, ho!" Giddy fans chant "We got the Cup!" and "1994!" and even, one last defiant time, "1940!" Messier takes the Grail over to the boards and holds it up for fans to reach over and touch.

As one sign in the building says, simply and succinctly, "Now I can die in peace."

There are no arrests in New York. There is no rioting (except in that placid metropolis of Vancouver). There is just a long, festive love-in on the streets (and in the bars) of Manhattan and across the tri-state area (and surely across the country, and in parts of the rest of the world). In one little living room in an annoyingly dinky farm town in southern Connecticut, one family goes into a big group hug at the buzzer. They break out a bottle of champagne. They call friends, family, high school teachers, and just scream a lot.

As soon as Messier holds the Stanley Cup, that instant it became official, one of them breaks into tears, tears of joy that come out in huge sobs, that last well into the post-game show.

It's over. It really is. The parade is Friday, June 17, damn it...

VAN 0 1 1--2
NYR 2 1 0--3
(Rangers win series, 4-3)
First period -- 1, New York, Leetch 11 (Zubov, Messier), 11:02. 2, New York, Graves 10 (Kovalev, Zubov), 14:45 (pp). Penalties -- Lumme, Van (cross-checking), 14:03; Hedican, Van (roughing), 18:50; Tikkanen, NY (roughing), 18:50.
Second period -- 3, Vancouver, Linden 11 (Glynn, Bure), 5:21 (sh). 4, New York, Messier 12 (Graves, Noonan), 13:29 (pp). Penalties -- Brown, Van (interference), 4:39; Babych, Van (tripping), 12:46; Messier, NY (hooking), 16:39.
Third period -- 5, Vancouver, Linden 12 (Courtnall, Ronning), 4:50 (pp). Penalties -- Tikkanen, NY (hooking), 4:16; Linden, Van (roughing), 10:55; MacTavish, NY (roughing), 10:55.
Shots on goal -- Vancouver 9-12-9 -- 30; New York 12-14-9 -- 35.
Power-play opportunities -- Vancouver 1 of 2; New York 2 of 3. Goalies -- Vancouver, McLean 15-9 (35 shots-32 saves); New York, Richter, 16-7 (30-28). Attendance -- 18,200 (plus 50,000 who will someday claim to be there).
Referee -- Terry Gregson. Linesmen -- Kevin Collins, Ray Scapinello.

Mike (I mean, I'm emotional and all; I get misty at the end of _Slap Shot_. But five years later, I still can't explain why I cried that hard that night) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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The newspapers confirm it, the radio confirms it, the smiles on the faces of every Ranger fan you know confirm it. It happened. It really did.... It's not a dream, it's not some freaky Twilight-Zone thing, it's not a joke.

New York Rangers -- 1994 Stanley Cup Champions. It'll get a little getting used to, but damn...

Mike (Part of the reason I sit under the Banner after games when I go is to offer a little prayer of thanksgiving. The other part is to make sure the Banner is still actually there...) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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A friend and I make tentative plans to go, but at the last minute he is told he has to work. I shrug and make plans instead to join my Mom and my brother in front of the television.

Mike (Mom bought lunch) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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God knows how many people line the streets of lower Manhattan to watch a parade, to bid goodbye to a curse, to chant "Heave, ho, two in a row" with a Player's Player, and to beg "four more years" of a coach (and a bunch of us joined in at home). Though only 28 of the 29 Men are present (Corey Hirsch misses the day for some unknown reason), they are nonetheless a beautiful representation of something very special -- Americans, Canadians, a Swede, a Finn, and even four Russians for the first time, all coming together for one common goal: to walk together forever.

May they always.

Heave, ho!

The 1993-94 New York Rangers:

Head Coach -- Mike Keenan. Associate Coach -- Colin Campbell. Assistant Coach -- Dick Todd. General Manager -- Neil Smith. Assistant General Manager -- Larry Pleau. Medical Trainer -- Dave Smith. Equipment Trainer -- Joe Murphy. Massage Therapist -- Bruce Lifrieri. Assistant Equipment Trainer -- Mike Folga. President of MSG -- Bob Gutkowski. Executive VP/General Counsel -- Ken Munoz. Governor--Stanley Jaffe. Scouts -- Christer Rockstrom, Tony Feltrin, Darwin Bennett, Herb Hammond, Martin Madden. Director of Team Operations -- Matt Loughran. Director of Communications -- Barry Watkins.

Mike Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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Very special thanks to that aforementioned hockey team for being the one that finally did it.

Thanks to those who read it for reading it, to those who didn't read it for putting up with it, to those who joined in for the joy their memories brought me, and to those who sent kind words for just that.

I'll eventually put all these (they only started Feb. 7, remember) together in one big file. If anyone's interested, let me know, though it might be a while, and it'll probably end up on my web page eventually anyway. Ed.note: Like this, kinda...

Hope y'all enjoyed the ride a second time. Maybe we can do it again in 2K4...

Mike ("Preserve your memories; they're all that's left you." --Simon and Garfunkel, "Bookends Theme") Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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