Dateline Orange, 11/19/98, with update 11/20/98
G3 18 (8) (sh) 11 11:58
That's the innocent-looking line I have scrawled in a notebook from the 1996-97
season. I was at the April 11, 1997 New York Ranger game against Tampa Bay, a 4-2 Lightning win (ooh,
shocker there, eh?), and that's my notation of the first Ranger goal: Bill Berg (18), his
eighth of the season, from Mark Messier (11) at 11:58 of the second period. And because Adam Graves was in
the box for slashing, the goal came on Tampa's second power play. Yes, that's what we in
the hockey circles call a shorthanded goal.
Remember those? Because Rangers fans can't. That little shorthanded goal
(Messier poked it away at the blue line, fed Berg on the 2-on-1, Berg hit the crossbar, and then followed his own shot to beat Rick Tabaracci) is the Rangers' last in regular-season competition*.
Back then, they weren't all that uncommon -- heck, I saw three of them myself that year.
*--Esa Tikkanen had a shorthanded goal in Game 4 of the 1997
Eastern Conference Finals, from Doug Lidster at 1:41 of the third period on May 23, 1997. Meaning the actual streak is the streak plus one....
But since then? Not a one. And Nov. 19 in Los Angeles, we reached the 100th straight Ranger regular season game
without a shorthanded goal. Nothing 3-on-4, nothing 4-on-5, nothing 3-on-5.
NOTHING. One-big-old-hundred games.
Nothing special, but I figured it needed to be noted.
And I still miss Mark Messier.
Click here to return to the homepage
Michael Fornabaio--
mef17@oocities.com