New York Rangers win the Stanley Cup after 54 years
| Memorable Sports Moments |
   |
| Invite Your Friends to Rate |
It had been almost 54 years since the New York Rangers had won the Stanley Cup and while the blueshirts had assembled a talented bunch, it didn’t appear as though they were heading into 1993 prepared to make a run the whole way to the cup. However, the Rangers geared up early and added a President’s Trophy to the cabinet that season with a 52-24-8 record, led by Mark Messier, Adam Graves and other staunch defenders such asBrian Leetch and a young Sergei Zubov. The Rangers then entered the playoffs and easily dispatched the cross-town rival New York Islanders in four games and the scrappy Washington Capitals in five games. The test came against the hated New Jersey Devils with future hall of famer Martin Brodeur, who would win the Calder Memorial Trophy that year as top Rookie.
This fateful series featured three multi-overtime games, two won by the Rangers’ Stephane Matteau with late goals. Matteau’s most important goal came in Game six, one Captain Mark Messier predicted the Rangers would win. Messier delivered on his promise, even as the Rangers were down 2-0 by registering a crucial assist of Alexei Kovalev and a hat trick to give the Rangers a 4-2 victory. The seventh game was tied 0-0 until midway when Brian Leetch moved the Rangers closer to the Cup by a score of 1-0. However, Valeri Zelepukin tied it up with 7.7 second to go by inserting a puck just past a sprawling Mike Richter to head into overtime. From there Matteau added his second vital overtime goal to propel the Rangers to the Cup Finals.
At the start of the Stanley Cup Finals, the New York Rangers appeared to be clearly superior to the seventh seeded Vancouver Canucks. The blueshirts took an opening game hit by losing in overtime 3-2, facing a tough 52 save performance by Kirk McLean. However they would rattle the next three games and take a foreboding 3-1 series lead. The Curse of 1940 would rear its ugly head causing losses in Games five and six sending the Rangers back to Madison Square Garden for a pivotal game seven. Trevor Linden would score two goals in the final game but Messier, Graves and Leetch each added a tally to give the Rangers the cup, the first MSG would ever see.
