Messier Lifts the Curse.

Messier Lifts the Curse. After playing for more than half a century without winning a championship, the New York Rangers fought their way into the 1994 Stanley Cup, the National Hockey League's championship series. Team captain Mark Messier piloted the team to victory in the seven-game series against the Vancouver Canucks. . Messier Ends "The Curse" In 1941 the New York Rangers won their third Stanley Cup title. That year, the mortgage on Madison Square Garden had just been paid off. Team owner John Reed celebrated the Ranger victory by burning the mortgage papers inside the cup. It would be 53 years, however, before the team played championship hockey on their home ice. "Now I Can Die in Peace," read a fan's sign hoisted at the Garden after "The Curse" was finally lifted in 1994. New York's seven-game victory over the Vancouver Canucks ended the longest championship drought of any team in the National Hockey League (NHL). "They talk about ghosts and dragons," team captain Mark Messier told the New York Times after the Rangers' historic triumph. "You can't be afraid to slay the dragon." New York acquired Messier from the Edmonton Oilers in 1991. Messier earned five championship rings in 12 seasons with the Oilers--four of them while sharing the ice with Wayne Gretzky. The Rangers hoped Messier would earn a ring while playing for them. In the 1993-1994 season, Messier, left wing Adam Graves, and defenseman Brian Leetch powered the Rangers to the NHL's best regular-season record. Many experts questioned whether a team with nine players over the age of 30 could stay healthy enough to contend for the league title. New York, however, quelled the speculation in short order, sweeping the crosstown-rival Islanders in four games in the opening round of the playoffs and then trouncing the Washington Capitals in five games in round two. The combined score in the two series was 42-15. Fatigue, however, struck New York during the Eastern Conference championship series against the New Jersey Devils. A young, aggressive unit, the Devils battled New York all season for the Atlantic Division title, posting a strong second-place finish. Plus, New Jersey boasted the league's second-best goalie, Martin Brodeur. It was a classic seven-game epic, with three contests going into double overtime. The Rangers won two of the first three games but lost two straight to stand one defeat away from elimination. "We'll win," Messier guaranteed with game six at the Meadowlands Arena approaching. When New Jersey carried a 2-1 lead into the third period, Messier backed his words by scoring three goals in the final 20 minutes. Game seven at the Garden saw New York take a 1-0 lead into the final minute. With just eight seconds remaining, Devils left wing Valeri Zelepukin--who had scored just 26 goals during the season--beat goalie Mike Richter. Less than a minute into the second five-minute overtime, Rangers left wing Stephane Matteau--himself the scorer of just 19 regular-season goals--delivered the winning goal. For the first time since 1979, and only the third time since 1940, the New York Rangers were in the Stanley Cup Finals. Their opponents were the Western Conference-champion Vancouver Canucks, a club that had finished the regular season a mere one game over the .500 mark. Of the conference's eight playoff contenders, the Canucks were seeded seventh. Vancouver right wing Pavel Bure was the NHL's top goal scorer that year. After dropping the opening game 1-0 in overtime, the Rangers strung together three consecutive victories to draw within one win of the title. With victory seemingly at hand, New Yorkers began stocking up on confetti. "Tonight's the Night," blared a headline in a local tabloid. "The Cup Stops Here," screamed another. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani sent out invitations for a celebratory barbecue. Several Rangers were booked to appear on late-night talk shows. Swept up in the hype, the Rangers came out for game five at the Garden in a virtual sleepwalk. By the start of the third period they were down 3-0. New York scratched back to level the score as Messier culminated the three-goal spurt with a wrist shot midway through the period. Vancouver then stunned the Rangers--and the sellout crowd--by netting three quick goals to put the game far out of reach. Game six in Vancouver proved even more of a challenge for the Rangers. The team showed little will to win, while the Canucks played with the youthful abandon that was their trademark. Perhaps concentrating too much on keeping Bure's shots out of the net, New York allowed two Canucks to score two goals each: defenseman Jeff Brown (14 regular-season goals) and left wing Geoff Courtnall (26 regular-season goals). The 4-1 victory marked the second time in the postseason that Vancouver recovered from a three-to-one deficit to force a seventh game. The action shifted back to New York for the final game of the series. Outside the Garden, scalpers were getting up to $2500 per ticket. Meanwhile, the Rangers were getting an earful from coach Mike Keenan, who delivered, according to Messier, "the most powerful, intense, emotional speech" he had heard. "No time for the faint of heart," Messier told the New York Times. Leetch, kept out of the net in the previous two games, opened the scoring midway through the first period. He started the play with a pass to Messier, who skated past Bure and backhanded an against-the-grain pass to Sergei Zubov. The defenseman then passed to a streaking Leetch, whose shot from the left circle beat goalie Kirk McLean. It was Leetch's 34th point of the playoffs, leaving him 3 short of the Stanley Cup record for a defenseman set by Edmonton's Paul Coffey in 1985. Four minutes later Graves--held without a goal for the last ten games--scored on a power play. New York's 2-0 lead held up until midway through the second period, when Vancouver captain Trevor Linden punched in a shorthanded goal. Messier, who had scored just once during the series, netted what proved to be the winning goal later in the period. Linden narrowed the tally to 3-2 on a power-play goal five minutes into the third period. With six minutes remaining, low-scoring Canucks center Nathan LaFayette bounced a shot from close range off the crossbar, scaring the 18,200 capacity New York crowd. The Rangers tightened their defense as Vancouver scurried to even the score. "The clock didn't seem to move," Leetch later told the Times. "You have that fear of the puck going in the net. It's the most exciting moment in your life." The scoreboard clock showed 1.6 seconds. There was time for one last exciting moment. Rangers center Craig MacTavish faced off Canucks left wing Murray Craven from the left side of New York's goal. MacTavish won the duel, yanking the puck out of harm's way as time expired. Pandemonium erupted at the Garden as the air filled with fireworks and laser lights. "I've been in the game 15 years. I've won five Stanley Cups and I've never been through anything like this," an ecstatic Messier told the Times afterward. "We're going to celebrate this like we've never celebrated anything in our lives. Let me tell you, once you get a taste of this you never want to give it up." Messier, who ranked second on the team and third in the league with 30 postseason points, became the first player in NHL history to captain two different clubs to the Stanley Cup. He set a Rangers record with 12 playoff goals and scored at least one point in 21 of 23 postseason contests. He also became the second-highest scorer in Stanley Cup history, ranked behind Gretzky. "Mark Messier," Keenan said, "is the greatest leader in pro sports today." As for Leetch, he became just the sixth defenseman to receive the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff most valuable player (MVP). "Mark Messier told me this would be the toughest game that I've ever been a part of trying to win in my life," Leetch told the Times. "And he underestimated that a little bit." Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.