13. Matteau! Matteau! Matteau!

“When you’re talking about the Rangers, the feeling was always there that they were cursed. We all know that. But I never, ever, ever said that on the air. Just never could. But in Game 7, here comes [Valeri] Zelepukin, he scores, they play out the final 7.7 seconds, and I finally look at [Rangers analyst] Sal Messina, after I throw it to a break. And I look at him right in the eye and say, ‘Now, tell me this fucking team isn’t cursed.’ It was just the fan in me coming out. And for the first time, Sal let on that he might agree. Cursed.”

—Howie Rose, New York Rangers play-by-play voice (1985–1995)

Steve Levy was with friends for Game 7, and like so many New Yorkers in and around the Garden on that festive Friday night, he was prepared for a party. Indeed, Levy had that “dream” job at ESPN, and he was an up-and-coming sports broadcaster. But on this night, in the World’s Most Famous Arena, he was a fan above all else, in the seats, living and dying with every shift.

After Valeri Zelepukin’s game-tying goal, there was obviously more of the latter than the former.

“People were just walking around aimlessly, looking at each other,” Levy said. “There weren’t many words, not much could be said, other than ‘This is unbelievable.’ But mostly, it was just blank stares, and the overriding thought that, It’s just never going to happen for this team. Ever.”

The hallways—solemn, somber corridors that housed some 18,000 tortured souls dressed in red, white, and blue—slowly started to clear out as the 15-minute intermission that no one saw coming began to wind down. The Zamboni finished cleaning the ice, and as the players walked out of the dressing room—the road team with a little more pep in its step than the home team, of course—there was still an eerie feeling in the building.

“In the locker room, too,” Stephane Matteau said. “It was quiet for the most part. Some players were nervous, more nervous than I had seen them before.”

Down the hall, it was a different story.

“You tie it up, the momentum was back on our side, we’re back in it, and the emotions just changed in an instant. We could all feel it,” Tom Chorske said. “Those are electrifying moments, and you start to feel it and act on it. You say to yourself, ‘Hey, we can win this game. Let’s go do it.’”

The mood eventually turned in the New York room, though, thanks to Kevin Lowe. Still very much a new Ranger, Lowe sensed the urgency to say something…fast.

“In the locker room, yes, some guys were quiet, in shock, some were upset,” Mike Richter said. “And, all of a sudden, Kevin Lowe stands up and says, ‘If it wasn’t so hard, it wouldn’t be so much fun to win.’ And I have to tell you, why are we talking about that series now? Because it was so hard, and so well played on both sides. And Kevin, in his own vacuum right there, set us straight. We regrouped and went out.”

Both teams took a cautious approach to the first few minutes. There was a lot of dump and chase, and a lot of quick, steady line changes. Ever so slowly, the fans began to find their voices, and a few minutes in, the “Let’s Go Ran-gers” chants returned. And they had reason to sing—by the time five sudden-death minutes had been played, the Rangers had become the aggressors, with and without the puck.

Six minutes in, Alexei Kovalev even got away with a high stick on Bruce Driver, as the two tangled behind Martin Brodeur. Eventually, Kovalev’s shoulder was wedged between the boards and Driver, and the Rangers sharpshooter fell to the ice as if he’d been shot. He left the shift favoring his shoulder and was immediately tended to.

“At that point, though, it was players playing,” said Kevin Collins, the linesman who admittedly was also skating on adrenaline at this point. “With what was on the line, it was going to take a lot to get a call at that point.”

The players knew that, of course, so at times they pushed forward and felt free to take a few liberties. At other times, they pulled back and played cautiously. Either way, though, things remained physical. In fact, 12 minutes in, the inspired, suddenly talkative Lowe skated back behind Richter to touch up for an icing, and there was a noticeable cut bleeding profusely from his left eye.

“That group was incredibly tough,” Lowe said of the Rangers, “and inspiring and full of character. Everyone battled on that team, on or off the ice.”

With 6:55 left, the Devils, easily the more cautious of the two teams, had their best chance as Scott Stevens gave the puck to Stephane Richer at the blue line. With four Rangers still in the Devils’ zone, Richer was able to weave a pass through the neutral zone and onto the stick of Randy McKay.

“Every time, it seemed, that you’d look up, that fourth line was doing something,” said the Post’s Larry Brooks.

And thanks to a perfect pass from Richer, McKay and Bobby Holik broke into the zone on a 2-on-1 against Jeff Beukeboom as the fans slid to the fronts of their seats. Beukeboom chose to defend the puck carrier, McKay, and the Rangers defenseman was able to body him to the left circle. But McKay was able to feather a pass in time to Holik in front. Holik, though, was only able to let off a one-handed backhand tip that popped up in the air. It was caught by Richter, who covered and held for a whistle. A lot of work and a lot of precision had ended in a harmless tip, but that’s overtime hockey. From the Devils’ perspective, it was a good scoring chance in a period that didn’t feature many of them. With 6:45 left, the Rangers led in shots 8–3, and Kovalev had returned, healthy and ready to go.

“Into the overtime, all the Devils seemed to be doing was throwing it to center. And then, the Rangers would take it back up the ice,” Stan Fischler said. “It amazed me. The Devils were sitting back! The law of averages was bound to catch up to them, it seemed.”

Lowe’s rough period continued as he chased a puck that had been swept in behind Richter. An aggressive Bill Guerin lined Lowe up and stunned him with a cross-check. After landing shoulder-first on the ice, face down, the whistle was blown, and Richter rushed to his aid. Lowe returned to his feet eventually, but it was clear that his 186th playoff game was shaping up to be one of his toughest.

The Rangers, perhaps a bit inspired by the hit on Lowe, came to life with five minutes left. Sergei Nemchinov carried out of the zone and hit a streaking Brian Noonan on the right boards as Tommy Albelin scrambled to cover. Noonan had too much speed for Albelin to catch up, and the forward used the surprising space to let off a slap shot from the right circle that would have sailed wide of the net. But this was overtime, and strange bounces have been known to happen. So, even though the puck wasn’t going in the net, Brodeur played it safe and calmly snared it with his glove and held for a faceoff.

But the Rangers kept coming. With 4:40 left, Mark Messier won the ensuing faceoff and got the puck to Brian Leetch, but his slap shot sailed wide, as well. The Devils failed to clear, and Kovalev was able to get off a spinning wrist shot from the right circle that Brodeur again calmly stopped at 4:17.

“You better get to the fridge, and get a couple more beers, folks,” Bill Clement said on the telecast. “Because this looks like it’s going to take a while.”

The save didn’t faze Noonan, who easily was one of New York’s better players in the extra session. As the last minute of play was announced to the anxious crowd, Noonan was able to catch a deflection that started with Albelin’s clearing attempt, but was angled off in midair by Craig MacTavish’s stick.

In an athletic sweeping motion fit for some of the game’s more skilled players, Noonan, right in front of Brodeur, caught the puck, laid it flat on the ice, and let go of a wrist shot that Brodeur had to slide for and stack the pads to stop. It was the home team’s best chance of the period, and even though the stakes seemed to be rising with each minute, Brodeur seemed to be gaining in confidence.

“The Devils definitely had great goaltending, and they had several ways to beat you,” Richter said. “So, we needed to keep improving with each shift, and be ready for anything. The important thing was to not get frustrated.”

Sergei Zubov did just that, though, in the final minute. As he and Bobby Carpenter got tangled behind Richter, Zubov slingshotted New Jersey’s veteran center into the boards with a swift swing of his stick. Carpenter was prone on his knees, with his head down, for three minutes. He eventually had the strength to get up and headed for the bench with 39.4 seconds left. No penalty was called. Indeed, the home crowd actually booed Carpenter, as if he might be faking an injury to get a penalty called on Zubov. Either way, the teams played on.

The Devils, thoroughly outplayed, fired the last salvo, as Stevens’ blast was stopped by Richter with 4.6 seconds remaining. New York had dominated the frame, outshooting New Jersey 15–7, for a 43–31 overall lead. The Rangers fans could cling to that, if nothing else. But with a composed Brodeur and after the faith inspired by the Zelepukin goal, the Devils were still hanging tough and making life miserable for the Blueshirts’ faithful.

“It was the great goaltending at that time, in that period back then, that really, really stabilized us,” Ken Daneyko said. “We always had Marty.”

But the Rangers were not intimidated or discouraged. Back in the locker room, they were satisfied with their attack time, their shot total, and the way they had controlled the play. They were still one puck past Richter away from elimination, but from a pure hockey standpoint, they had reason to feel confident.

As the third double-overtime period in the series began, Messier won the opening draw against a weakened Carpenter as the “Let’s Go Ran-gers” chants returned, despite the anxiety enveloping the ice. But again, there was a distinct feeling-out process early on, and both teams seemed content to fire shots from anywhere, whether they were quality chances or not.

Messier, relatively quiet most of this night, got into the act three minutes in. Leetch was able to hold the zone, and shuttled the puck over to Kovalev at the left circle. Kovalev shot a riser toward Brodeur as traffic gathered in front of the rookie. The puck sneaked through and Brodeur was just able to get his left skate on it, with Messier at the left post. The rebound shot back to Messier, but Brodeur stopped him and the Devils cleared the zone with 16:36 left. The Rangers had two point-blank shots, two seconds apart. But again, Brodeur kept the game alive.

“To be in that building that night,” Mike Francesa said, “with the ups and the downs, and the emotions, it was truly amazing.”

Even more amazing was how the Rangers refused to get frustrated. They kept pushing forward. They kept attacking. After Richter made a stop on Richer that was made difficult by traffic created by Bernie Nicholls, Noonan, playing his best hockey of the series, carried out to center, gave it to Glenn Anderson, and the two broke in 2-on-1 against Viacheslav Fetisov. Anderson kept it and fired from the circle. It was saved by Brodeur, but the puck drifted behind the net. Eventually, it landed in the left corner, where John MacLean scooped it and lofted it out toward center. Desperate to clear the zone, MacLean’s punt didn’t work. The fly ball was caught like a center fielder in the neutral zone by Beukeboom. He settled the puck on the ice, and the Rangers got themselves a line change that would end in history.

“The law of averages,” Fischler said. “It was just a matter of time.”

As Rangers players swapped spots to complete their change, Beukeboom blasted it in from the left point. Brodeur watched it fly off the back boards, the Devils completed a change of their own, and there were now fresh forwards on both sides. Fetisov gathered in behind Brodeur and tried to shuttle it out of the zone, but his clearing attempt was not demonstrative, and it bounced off Esa Tikkanen’s skate and off to the left back boards again. Again, the Devils were left scrambling to get back in position; New Jersey was a mess in its own zone, exactly what they were famous for not being. Soon, they’d pay for it with their playoff lives.

Looking back, Fetisov probably should have left no doubt and lofted the puck safely out of the zone through the air, à la MacLean, and away from any and all deflections. As it was, the puck found Tikkanen’s toe and would stay in the Devils’ zone. Matteau, with plenty of jump, had more speed than Scott Niedermayer, and easily won the race for the puck. He gathered, swept in behind Brodeur, used Fetisov as a screen, and let go of a wraparound that seemed like nothing more than a centering pass for Tikkanen.

Turns out, it was anything but:

Fetisov, for the Devils, plays it cross-ice, into the far corner. Matteau swoops in to intercept. Matteau behind the net, swings it in front. He scores! MATTEAU! MATTEAU! MATTEAU! Stephane Matteau! And the Rangers have one more hill to climb, baby! But it’s Mount Vancouver! The Rangers are headed to the Finals!

Those are the immortal words of Howie Rose, and they were a fitting end for The NHL’s Greatest Series Ever.

Rangers 2, Devils 1.

Series over.

Cue the crowd.

At 4:24 of the second overtime, Matteau, a selfless, grinding, do-everything-ever-asked-of-him forward who Mike Keenan just had to have on the 1994 Rangers, ended this seven-game epic with his third goal of the series. With Tikkanen parked in front waiting for the pass and Dowd right in his back pocket, Matteau’s attempt touched Brodeur at the left post and caromed into the net ever so slowly. After a magnificent effort all night long, Brodeur let one in that he should have stopped.

“I got lucky, and you need that,” Matteau said. “I learned in hockey a long time ago, if you don’t have a play, put it at the goalie’s pads or at his feet. So, I did. I tried a spinaround, and I got hooked a little by Niedermayer. And Marty took a half second to move from right to left. I just wanted to put it out front, and I lost control of it a little bit, and it went from there. But I just wanted to get it to Tikkanen, really. I think I was the first to see it go in. It was going so very slowly.”

There was a delayed reaction throughout the Garden because the shot was indeed so slow.

“When you’re 180 feet away, you don’t know what happens until you hear the crowd. You try to keep yourself in the game. And it was fun to watch, trust me, even from that far away. But I didn’t know at first,” Richter said. “I saw [Matteau] go behind the net, and I’ll never forget this. He spins around, lets off the shot, and it goes across the line. But there was this hesitation, at least from my end, that ‘Hey, I thought that just went in. But I don’t know.’ I couldn’t hear anything. Nothing. It was surreal. You don’t let yourself think it’s over, but it’s almost like, ‘Is it really in?’ And then you hear the crowd, and then it’s like, okay, now we can go crazy.”

Leetch shared in the confusion.

“I was on the line change and was coming down the left side. I remember seeing him go around the net, but I never saw the shot go in, that’s for sure. No chance at that. It was too slow,” he said. “I looked over at Esa who was at the front of the net, and I saw him jump up. But he was a goofy guy, too, and you just never knew with him what he was doing, so I didn’t trust that. But then, finally, to hear the roar of the crowd, you knew it. But just to show you how slow I was to it all, I believe I was the sixth guy to jump into the celebration.”

To be honest, the crowd reacted to Matteau’s reaction—a memorable, photogenic, jubilant run on skates that ended in the faceoff dot to the left of Brodeur as the Rangers flew over the boards to greet him—and not the actual shot itself.

“For a second there, I couldn’t hear a thing,” said Dowd, who was in the crease just inches away from the puck. “I saw it go in, and I was numb. It was a line change, and I came up to the breakout. I focused in on Tikkanen and took him to the back post. Matteau turned toward the net, got some space, and it was a simple wraparound, and that’s sometimes how games are won in overtime. Doesn’t always have to be pretty.

“To be out there on the ice? Well, for me, everything fell silent. I didn’t hear the fans cheering, if you can believe it. Like I said, after that series, after all those games, and all those emotions, I was just numb. That’s all I can say.”

The emotions played out in the Devils’ body language as the celebration continued in their zone. Brodeur fell onto his backside and crept inside the net, as if he was afraid to come out. He reached back to grab the puck and push it back out of the net with his glove…and he missed it again.

“We knew we could have beaten them,” Claude Lemieux said. “We just didn’t.”

Fetisov, meanwhile, who wiped out on the play, remained prone, looking at the net. Niedermayer did the same. Eventually, Brodeur made his way out, and by this time, the rest of the Devils had joined him in the crease. The first one to try and lift his spirits was McKay, who tapped him on the pads, as any veteran teammate would do. But it was going to be tough to get over this one, even for this unflappable rookie. After making save after save in the overtime sessions, he allowed a softy that would forever immortalize Matteau and gave the rival Rangers their chance to break The Curse.

“It was a shame that it had to end on a fluky, bad goal,” Daneyko said. “But that’s hockey.”

Chris Russo concurred.

“It was a fluky goal, and you hated to see that for that series, as great as it was. You hated to see it end that way,” he said. “But that often happens in hockey series. It’s not often the clean, pretty goal that wins games. Especially for a goaltender as great as Martin Brodeur. Even at such a young age, you knew he was going to be great, and you just knew it was a save he probably should have made.”

The crowd didn’t care. By the time it had sunk in that the puck crossed the line, the fans erupted to a level not heard in the Garden in a long, long time. They hugged one another. They looked up to the rafters. They cried. Some of them even had to sit back down, catch their breath, and check their heart rate. The same scene played out on the ice, as Rangers players and coaches let out two weeks’ and 27 periods’ worth of emotion.

Eventually, the two teams lined up for the traditional handshake line with the crowd still roaring its approval. As the procession began, Brodeur finally raised up his mask and let the cameras see a face full of emotion. The rookie had made 46 saves on a night where his team just couldn’t muster enough offense.

Among the notable handshakes was the one between Lemieux and Richter, two players who made their living in front of the Rangers’ net in this series. They shared a moment, as Richter tapped Lemieux on the top of the helmet and the pesky forward congratulated the goaltender. Brodeur and Matteau paused at their shake as well, two French Canadians who would experience many highs and lows in their long careers. Matteau pulled him tight, and tapped Brodeur on the shoulder. Matteau finished his shakes and let loose the same triumphant yell he did a few days ago when he last won a game in double overtime. He held both hands in the air and simply yelled, “Woooooooooooooooo!”

By this time, New York’s healthy scratches had reached the benches, dressed in suits, and congratulated their teammates in uniform. Nick Kypreos rushed to hug Doug Lidster, and Lidster picked him up off the ground. Matteau did the same with an ecstatic Eddie Olczyk.

As the Prince of Wales Trophy was placed at center ice, Keenan and assistant coach Colin Campbell shared a moment. A hug, one that rocked back and forth for 15 seconds, further illustrated just what had been accomplished. It was not an easy series on the New York coaching staff, clearly, but it ended the way the men had hoped.

Moments later, NHL senior vice president Steve Solomon handed the trophy to Messier. The Rangers captain took it with pride and held it up as the team gathered around him.

“You don’t skate around with that one,” Gary Thorne said on ESPN. “You hold it up.”

Of course, he was right. This wasn’t the time to skate around the Garden with a trophy. This trophy only gave them the chance to play for the one that really mattered—the Stanley Cup—and the intelligent, hockey-crazed crowd knew it. In fact, as the trophy was held up, the chant throughout the arena was simple. This trophy was great and all, but “We want the Cup.”

Keenan couldn’t help but laugh and clap from the bench. General manager Neil Smith, high up in the rafters, finished a swig of Diet Coke, looked down in approval, and turned to walk away, knowing four more wins were needed to complete his mission.

“Well, by a mile, this was the most dramatic series I have ever been involved with,” Clement said on the telecast. “And it ended in double overtime on a goal by…Stephane Matteau.”

Indeed, it was hard to believe. A player who wasn’t in training camp with the Rangers, who two months earlier most New Yorkers didn’t even know existed, had scored perhaps the greatest goal in the history of a great franchise. Instantly, Matteau became a celebrity. In fact, not long after the game, he went out with some teammates to an establishment not far from the Garden and received the full rock star treatment. No waiting in line, just walk right in, a king in his castle. The funny part is, earlier in the season, while he was still with the Blackhawks, he went to the same establishment…and couldn’t even get in the door.

On May 27, 1994, though, the tables had turned. In fact, one security guard even said to him, “You can do anything you like tonight! You can burn the place down if you want to!”

There is one famous story about Matteau from that evening, however, that does not check out. Matteau, as urban hockey legend tells it, tapped the Prince of Wales Trophy with the blade of his stick before the start of overtime. Of course, touching any trophy in hockey before it is won is a bad omen. It’s just something players don’t do. When looking back on the biggest night of his career, Matteau was blunt and convincing when debunking a myth that has made the rounds for years. Rest easy, Rangers fans.

“Never happened,” he said. “Don’t know where that came from, don’t know who started it. But it never happened. I never would have even thought to do something like that. There was a game to play.”

Lost in the chaos and euphoria of the moment was the man the pass was intended for. Conceivably, it could have been Tikkanen who put the puck in, not Matteau. The pass was headed his way before it ended up in the net.

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t know Matteau scored it. I couldn’t tell,” said Al Morganti, who had a rinkside position between the benches for ESPN, but did not have a raised view of the game-winner. “That’s why I give Howie the most credit in the world for knowing exactly who it was and when it was. Afterward, when you see Matteau jumping up and down, you can tell, sure. But in the moment, it was such a mangled mess. That’s one of the reasons it has to be one of the greatest calls ever. And for him to yell, ‘Matteau! Matteau! Matteau!’ at that point. He had to be scared to death it was wrong!”

Truth be told, he was.

“The reality is, yes, I thought I had blown it the first time I heard it. Because I had never gotten that out of control before on the air. Never,” Rose said. “And when the postgame show aired, here comes Sal [Messina], and he gets in my head. The postgame show airs, and I hear the call, and I say ‘Oh, my God. This is so over the top. It’s just not me.’ And then, while Sal is analyzing the replay, he sees Esa Tikkanen crashing the net, which we really didn’t see from our vantage point. The one thing about that broadcast location we had back in those days, all the way downstairs at Madison Square Garden, was that it was perfect for following a play like Matteau’s goal. Up and back at the Garden, like it is now? You can’t always tell. But back then, the powers of concentration are so acute at that point that my eyes were glued to the puck on Matteau’s stick. So, I didn’t think it was anyone but Matteau.

“But then you look at the replay, and see where Tikkanen crashes the net, and you say, ‘Wow, it could have been Esa! It really could!’ So, anyway, Sal says on the air, during the replay, ‘Hey, Howie, I don’t know, that could be Esa Tikkanen’s goal.’ And I’m saying ‘Oh, shit.’ I can just see myself now, having to run into a studio and dub, ‘Tikkanen! Tikkanen! Tikkanen!’ At that point, I really thought I had blown it. Turns out, I didn’t…luckily.”

As a result, in many ways, Rose became as famous as Matteau did. Today, they are linked forever. Rose admits he sends a text message to Matteau every May 27. You can guess what it might read: “Matteau! Matteau! Matteau!”

“I’ve got to be honest with you, it might be the greatest call I’ve ever heard in sports. Because as an aspiring play-by-play guy, it had all of the elements,” ESPN-AM 1050’s Don LaGreca said. “The thing that strikes me is, it’s not a foregone conclusion that Matteau scores the goal. Some people thought it was Tikkanen, some people weren’t sure, and if you listen to other calls—the national call, the TV calls—nobody was more on top of it than Howie. And he put emotion into it, and he got into it, and it might go down as one of the greatest calls in the history of sports…even though it pains me.”

Steve Somers worked the overnight shift on WFAN that night, and almost immediately put that call in his files. He played it several times through the night.

“Certainly, in terms of excitement and drama, it’s right up there,” Somers said of Rose’s call. “The emotion you heard from Howie, it was his greatest. He loves the Mets and the Rangers, even though he does the Islanders now, he’s so into hockey and baseball. What came from Howie on that night was his heart, his soul, his passion.”

Kenny Albert, who now works NFL and Major League Baseball games for FOX, in addition to being the Rangers’ radio voice, grew up a Rangers fan, like so many other broadcasters and journalists with New York ties. As such, Matteau and Rose will always have a special place in his heart.

“With Howie, part of his legacy will always be the Matteau call. And what a call,” he said. “It’s just one of those moments that you can’t explain. We’ll talk about it forever.”

They certainly talked about it through the night on the streets of Manhattan. And that didn’t register with Rose until he left the booth.

“As I left the building, as happy as I was that they had won, I was a little nervous as to how the call was going to be accepted. So, I leave the Garden, and there’s a guy in his car, sitting on 33rd Street, and he yells out, ‘Howie, great call. Great call.’ And I just think he’s being nice because he saw me, and he’s glad they won, and the whole bit. But then I get into my car, and I’m listening to the FAN on the way home, and they’re replaying the call every five minutes. Every five minutes! And literally, people are talking about the call as much as they were the game and the series. It was Steve Somers, and I will never forget it.

“The next day, it was Russ Salzberg on the FAN, and he’s taking calls, and that’s all that everyone was talking about. And as I was driving to Shea the next morning—the Mets had a day game and I had the call—as I was listening to the callers, I finally thought to myself, Maybe that call wasn’t so bad after all. It’s just incredible to me how it has endured for so many years. It’s just very, very flattering.”

The Devils, and Brodeur especially, would be linked to that call, like it or not, for years. At the time, and perhaps even to this day, they could care less. In the Devils locker room at the Garden that night, it was a scene as somber as you’ll ever see in sports.

Tears.

Shock.

Silence.

“They were all so crushed. It was a locker room scene that I will never forget. Ever,” Russo said. “I just remember walking up to Ken Daneyko, a true Devil who had been through everything with the franchise. One of the tougher things I’ve had to do in this business. Very hard. It was pretty somber.”

Daneyko concurred.

“It was devastating for us, no question. We gave our blood, sweat, and tears,” he said. “To be that close—and I think you truly have to experience that in any sport to really know—and not come away with the prize, it was devastating. The agony of defeat, and all the sports clichés come out at a time like that, but they were true in this instance.”

Inspired and motivated by it as they might be in future years, the Devils knew it was going to take a long time to get over it. To lose to their biggest rival, to have a 3–2 series lead and a 2–0 lead in Game 6, and to tie it in Game 7 with 7.7 seconds left, only to see it wash away, the pain was unimaginable.

“I was living day by day at that point, for sure. I was not looking ahead too much. It was tough to think about what it might do to us down the road. It was too fresh,” Brodeur said. “When you get so close to winning, you have the feeling, and you go through adversities. Sometimes, you get the better of those, and sometimes, you go in the other direction. Along the way, you learn a lot about yourself and your teammates. We knew we were a team then, win or lose as a team, and it was just a matter of how we bounced back from it.”

For Matteau and the Rangers, though, there was another series to be played. It was so important to file this one away—as hard as it might be—and prepare for the Vancouver Canucks, a spunky bunch who had already defeated some big names—Calgary, Dallas, and Toronto—to get to the Finals.

“That’s all I thought about, honestly,” Matteau said. “People ask that all the time. ‘What went through your head as you scored?’ Things like that. And honestly, I wasn’t thinking about The Curse, and I wasn’t thinking about the Devils, or anything other than the fact that we had a chance to go the Finals now. That was it.”

That was the right attitude, certainly, and you knew if Matteau’s teammates didn’t share it, Keenan would change that in a hurry.

“We knew we could feed off what we had done, but we knew we had work ahead,” Keenan said. “But that series itself, and in itself, was one of the best series ever in the National Hockey League.”

And it ended with one of the greatest games ever. Even neutral participants agreed.

“My feelings are, it’s the greatest hockey game that I was ever involved with,” said Kevin Collins, now retired from officiating. “I worked 12 Stanley Cup Finals, and nothing came close. It was just the greatest hockey game…ever. So much going on, up and down, and it just had it all. And overall, it was the greatest hockey experience, because of the pressure, because of what was at stake, and because of the media, because it was New York. I will never forget it.

“The magnitude of the game, in Madison Square Garden, to see that level of hockey…just unbelievable. It was just…the greatest.”