New York Rangers VS New Jersey Devils Game 7 1992 Playoffs

Relying on special teams firepower to end a memorable struggle, the Rangers overcame one major hurdle with an 8-4 victory over the New Jersey Devils to capture their opening-round Stanley Cup playoff series, 4-3. 'Yeah, it was a big hump to get over,' said Mike Gartner, whose club-record sixth goal in one series put the Rangers ahead to stay midway through the first period. 'We had to exorcize a lot of ghosts, and I think we did that tonight.' The Rangers did it with two short-handed goals and three power-play tallies on four attempts while suffocating all five Devils' power-play opportunities. Darren Turcotte, Adam Graves and Mark Messier scored two goals apiece for New York, the league's first overall finisher during the regular season, which will open the Patrick Division finals Sunday night at home against the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh. The Rangers were 0-4 previously in Game 7s, the last one coming against Philadelphia in 1974. 'It was a great series, and I would think the Rangers could go on to win the Stanley Cup,' Devils Coach Tom McVie said. 'But I don't think they'll have a tougher series than they've just had against our club.' 'My hat's off to the Devils,' Messier said. 'They gave us a great series, but five minutes after the series is over, we have to start thinking about Pittsburgh.' Turcotte opened the scoring with a short-handed goal and blunted a New Jersey third-period rally with a power-play tally. Brian Leetch added another short-handed goal for the Rangers. John Vanbiesbrouck started in goal for New York for the first time since Game 2. The Rangers split the first two games with Vanbiesbrouck, then switched to Mike Richter for the next four games. Chris Terreri played all seven games for New Jersey. Turcotte put New York ahead 2:30 into the game by stealing a Bruce Driver power-play pass and skating in on Terreri to make it 1-0. The Devils quickly tied it when Tommy Albelin, playing in place of Viacheslav Fetisov, beat Vanbiesbrouck at 3:58. But the Rangers led 3-1 by the end of the period after Gartner banged home a rebound of a James Patrick shot at 9:38 and Graves put in a short-side rebound on a power play at 12:33. Gartner tied Bruce MacGregor Rangers' record of six goals in a series, set 1974 against Montreal. The Rangers scored twice within the first 2:38 of the second period and scored the first three goals of the period to stretch their lead to 6-1. Messier scored on a breakaway at 1:40, Graves scored his fourth goal of the series at 2:38, and Leetch scored on a two-on-one short- handed rush with Sergei Nemchinov at 13:34. Bill Guerin started a late Devils' rally when he tipped a 45-foot shot from Ken Daneyko past Vanbiesbrouck with 1:11 left in the second period. New Jersey scored the first two goals of the third period to pull within 6-4. Claude Lemieux scored his fourth of the series at 7:55 on a 10-footer from the slot, and Pat Conacher followed on a short-handed breakaway with 9:50 left. But a bench penalty for too many men on ice was called at 13:01, and Turcotte's power-play goal 1:26 later put it out of reach. 'It seemed to me whatever could go wrong went wrong,' McVie said. 'We were doing a hell of a job. The too-many-men was the momentum killer.' Messier added a goal into an empty net with 1:49 left, his fifth goal of the series.