Frustrating Journey Ends for the Rangers

With tenderness, they passed it back and forth, teammate to teammate.

The New York Rangers hadn’t won the Stanley Cup since 1940, but that was all history now. The old trophy was theirs now, and they proudly held it high on the ice, their silly, gap-toothed smiles visible to all at Madison Square Garden.

The Rangers, who had just beaten the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2, in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, touched off a wild, raucous yet under-control celebration inside and outside the arena.

Not so in the losers’ town.

In Vancouver, 500 police officers in riot gear waded into a “hard-core throng” of hockey toughs in the downtown area, liberally dispensing tear gas.

Firefighters responded to 150 fires, including one that brought down an apartment building, leaving 24 residents homeless.

“I’m absolutely appalled that a small number of people would use this Stanley Cup defeat to carry out such tremendous disruption and damage to people and property,” said Mayor Phillip Owen.

Meanwhile, while fires began breaking out in Vancouver, Ranger player Jay Wells fondled ice hockey’s greatest prize.

“It’s been 15 years that I’ve even seen the Cup in pictures, but I’ve never touched it, never even come close to it,” he said.

“I’ve seen Stanley Cup rings but I’ve never put one on my finger. Until we won it ourselves, I wasn’t going to touch the Cup. When I did touch it, it was a sweet feeling.”

Also on this date: In 1998, the Chicago Bulls won their third consecutive NBA championship with an 87-86 win over the Utah Jazz. . . . In 1934, Max Baer knocked out Primo Carnera in the 11th round to win boxing’s world heavyweight title. . . . In 1950, the Washington Redskins announced an NFL first--all of their games the following season would be televised.