The broadcast booth question behind historic Rangers moment

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“Matteau, Matteau, Matteau …” or was it Tikkanen?

Longtime Rangers play-by-play man Sam Rosen could not tell from his angle which player was responsible for the decisive goal in Game 7 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals against the Devils.

“Howie Rose’s call is the iconic call and one of the great calls in New York sports,” Rosen said of the radio call. “I felt John [Davidson] and I had a good call up top. Unfortunately, in the spot we were in, [we] couldn’t tell if it was [Stephane] Matteau coming around the net or Esa Tikkanen who was standing at the top of the crease.”

One series later Rosen would proclaim, “The waiting is over,” capturing the moment most Rangers fans had waited a lifetime for.

MSG Network’s celebration of that championship on the 25th anniversary will culminate Friday before and during a matchup with the Hurricanes. There will be a special pregame episode of “Connections” with Brian Leetch, Adam Graves and Mike Richter, as well as a pregame tribute and in-game interviews with alumni from that team. Davidson, now the Blue Jackets president of hockey operations, will return to the booth alongside Rosen and Joe Micheletti to relive the amazing season.

That could include Rosen and Davidson’s memorable trip to the parade. Initially, MSG bosses insisted the television partners work in the studio that day to give the network unique insight to what was going on as the parade moved up the Canyon of Heroes.

“John was beside himself, he wanted to be a part of the parade. I was disappointed but I was a team player,” Rosen recalled. “The production meeting ended and John said, ‘Come on, let’s go to breakfast.’ He was growling and we kind of shrugged and came back to the studio.

“We were into the coverage pretty well, following the team up the Canyon of Heroes. All of a sudden in the doorway appeared two police officers and they’re like, ‘You are coming with us.’ We got up, gathered our stuff as quickly as we could and we were out of there. In a squad car, the siren was blasting and it was a white-knuckle ride. Sometimes we were on the wrong side of the road, sometimes going the wrong way on a one-way street. We finally got to the backside of City Hall and we were a part of the final celebration on the steps of City Hall. It was great.”

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There have not been any titles since for the Rangers, nearly halfway to the 54-year drought that defined the franchise until 1994. After a couple of recent near misses, the organization is in the first season of a rebuild that started nearly a year ago.

Friday night, however, will be about the magical run that captured a city. It was the final season when regional networks broadcast games straight through the Stanley Cup. Rosen’s voice was the first most New Yorkers heard when the final agonizing second ticked off the clock in Game 7 against the Canucks.

“The feelings I had growing up in New York City, rooting for the Rangers, to have the championship call that ended this long, long drought and to see the Garden and feel the Garden erupt in joy, that was as good as it gets,” Rosen said. “The way the final call came out — ‘The waiting is over. The New York Rangers are the Stanley Cup champions, and this one will last a lifetime’ — I am very proud of that.”