The special jerseys were worn for just that one contest and auctioned off afterwards to raise money for The Twin Towers Fund to aid victims of the terrorist attacks.
The game was played after a moving pre-game ceremony that honored the men and women in uniform who died trying to save lives in the World Trade Center attack.
Eric Lindros opened the scoring at 8:13 of the first period on the power play in his first game at Madison Square Garden and J. P. Dumont evened the score a little over a minute later at 9:38.
Stu Barnes was credited with the Sabres second goal at just 1:59 of the second and Vaclav Varada stretched the Sabres lead to 3-1 at 14:46. The Rangers struck back late in the second with a pair of goals in the final minute to send the game into the third period even at 3-3 when Michal Grosek put one in at 19:12 and Andreas Johansson got the Rangers third with just a tick of the clock remaining at 19:59.
The Rangers too their first lead of the night at 3:11 of the third when Radek Dvorak beat the Sabres Bob Essensa on a breakaway but Slava Kozlov tied the game once more at 4:58 when he beat Rangers goalie Mike Richter.
Brian Leetch would win the game for the Rangers with a slapshot with 2:15 remaining in the overtime to give the Rangers a come-from-behind win in their home opener on a dramatic evening.
Today's featured jersey is a 2001-02 Buffalo Sabres "New York" Stu Barnes jersey. This jersey features Barnes' captain's "C" as well as the special "New York" cresting, which replaced the normal Sabres logo for this one game only.
The highest bids were $20,010 for Mark Messier's Rangers jersey, $15,010 each for Richter and Leetch of the Rangers, $9030 for Theo Fleury's Rangers jersey and $8030 for Lindros of the Rangers with the highest Sabres jersey being Barnes at $5885. In total, 44 jerseys were auctioned off and over $215,000 was raised.
This is one of the more unique jerseys in the ThirdStringGoalie collection. A blank Sabres CCM was first purchased. After locating the proper Sabres shoulder patches on ebay, the jersey was then sent in for customizing, with not only Barnes name and number, but the "New York" cresting recreated in the same font at the Sabres names on the back.
Here is a brawl from the October 7th, 2001 game when the Sabres and Rangers wore their special "New York" jerseys. You can see the Sabres jersey at the start before the players tie up. The 9/11 memorial ribbon patch can clearly be seen on the Rangers player's shoulder during the fight and you do get a clear look at both fighters jerseys at the end of the video when the fight is broken up and they are leaving the ice.
Plus, any day we get to post a video featuring Sabres announcer Rick Jeanneret is a good day.
Just because we can, some more Rick Jeanneret excitedly calling a few goals by Stu Barnes.
Wow! I had never seen these before, or even just heard about them. Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteAwesome, awesome jersey. I had actually bid on Stu's game-worn but it got too expensive for my just-outta-college bank account.
ReplyDeleteI was at that game too, very emotional night.
That must have been an amazing, memorable night to be in Madison Square Garden. I was on vacation in New York on September 11th, 2001 so the 9/11 tributes mean a lot to me having been as close to the events of that day that I was.
ReplyDeleteI am also having the Rangers "NEW YORK" jersey currently being lettered as a Mark Messier, but it wasn't completed in time to include it in today's post, so look for it on this date next year.
I have a hockey card with Maxim Afinogenov wearing the Sabres "New York" jersey.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great tribute, where did you have the jersey made?
ReplyDeleteWe bought the jersey blank from IceJerseys.com, who will sell you one blank, while many places have a minimum of 10 or so. We then were able to get the shoulder logo patches off of ebay and had the lettering on the front done my VintageMinnesotaHockey.com. Finally, the crested jersey was sent to Exclusive Pro Sports in Rockford, IL for the name and numbers. It was a fair amount of work getting it done, but we were very pleased with the final result and were glad you like it.
ReplyDeleteHow much did this cost you in total?
ReplyDeleteIt was quite a long time ago, but thinking about it, probably in the $125-$150 range since it needed customizing twice, once for the front and once for the back. Honestly, one of the keys to our collection is, other than a few more expensive game worn jerseys, we have an amazing ability to block out what we have spent on jerseys and blissfully just enjoy them for what they are without the guilt of what they cost. It's a blessing and a curse really.
ReplyDelete