NY Whacks Canucks 5-1

VANCOUVER, Canada -- There was a snakebitten team in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals, but for one of the rare times since 1940, it wasn't the New York Rangers. Blunders by Canucks stars Kirk McLean and Pavel Bure Saturday helped the Rangers move to within two victories of ending their 54-year quest for the NHL championship.McLean gave up two fluky goals, one to Brian Leetch and the other to Steve Larmer, and Bure got himself ejected at the end of the first period for high-sticking Jay Wells as the Rangers handed the Canucks a 5-1 thrashing Saturday night at Pacific Coliseum to take a 2-1 lead in the Stanley Cup finals.Game 4 will be played in Vancouver on Tuesday night before the series moves back to New York City.Leetch finished with two goals as the Rangers handed the Canucks their worst loss of the playoffs.Mike Richter made 24 saves, giving up only Bure's breakaway goal early in the first period, and received ample help from a defensive corps that was missing an ailing Sergei Zubov.Glenn Anderson scored the game-winner, his second in two games after netting only one goal in the previous 17 games. His tip of Sergei Nemchinov's shot from the high slot with 41 seconds left in the first period put the Rangers ahead 2-1 and gave him 91 career playoff goals.The Rangers led 4-1 in the third when Alexei Kovalev zipped past Gerald Diduck on the power play, faked McLean to the right then went left to finish the scoring at 13:03. There would be no nailbiting final minute in this game.Bure is a brilliant player, but he lost his head Saturday night and it cost his team. With 1:39 left in the first period and the score tied at 1, Bure was battling Wells for the puck after a faceoff when he turned and swung his stick at Wells' face, striking him above the left eye and sending him to the ice. Referee Andy van Hellemond assessed Bure a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct, forcing Pat Quinn to juggle his top line for the remainder of the game.The Rangers had been killing a Canucks' power play when Bure was ejected, which resulted in a four-on-four situation and plenty of open ice. Sergei Nemchinov took advantage of his matchup against defense man Brian Glynn, carrying him along the right boards and to center ice, where he wristed a shot between the legs of Murray Craven to the goal. Anderson was in front and he tipped the puck between his legs and past a screened McLean to put the Rangers ahead.The Canucks killed off the remainder of Bure's penalty, but they weren't the same team after that. Vancouver muscled the Rangers all over the ice and controlled play until McLean, The Impenetrable One, let in a fluke goal and the Rangers found their legs. Leetch was only trying to keep the puck in the Canucks' zone, so when he flipped the puck toward goal from the blue line, no one could have been more surprised than he was when McLean stooped to block it and the puck squirted between his pads, hit the right post and went in at 13:39 to tie the score.