15 years ago today: A long drive, and a loss

Something a little different today for our 1994 Stanley Cup Playoffs retrospective.

15 years ago today, my brother and I and our respective ex-es at the time drove from the Jersey Shore to Landover, Md, home of the old USAir Arena for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semis between the Rangers and Caps.

The Rangers had a 3-0 lead in the series, and most everyone felt the Rangers were poised to wrap the series up that night. We made the 4 hour drive in a driving rainstorm, and arrived at the game just in time to miss Adam Graves giving the Rangers a 1-0 lead less than a minute in. The arena was full of Ranger fans who had made the trip, and the Blueshirt Faithful were making themselves heard with chants of "We will sweep you".

Todd Krygier of the Caps had other ideas, Krygier, who had scored all of 12 goals in the regular season, beat Richter twice to give the Caps a 2-1 lead. Joe Juneau and Jason Woolley added goals in the 2nd to make it 4-1, and Mike Richter's night was done. Glen Healy played the rest of the game. Brian Noonan got a late goal for the Rangers to make it 4-2, and that's how it ended.

So the Rangers had won 7 playoff games in a row, most in convincing fashion, and all it took to screw it  up was for the jrs1940 family to drive 4 hours in a monsoon  to see them.