Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 7, 1990 TAG: 9004070142
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Mick Vukota, the Islanders' penalty leader during the season and the chief participant in the series of fights that followed the 2-1 triumph by the Rangers, was assessed an automatic suspension of 10 games, without appeal.
Ken Baumgartner, one of the NHL's notorious tough guys, who attacked Kris King of the Rangers in the melee, was suspended for one game.
The fighting came in the wake of a check moments earlier by James Patrick of the Rangers on Pat LaFontaine, the Islanders' top player, who was knocked unconscious, carried from the ice and hospitalized overnight.
He was released Friday amid charges by the Islanders that the medical care at the Garden was shoddy, but his status for Game 2 at the Garden tonight was questionable.
"For 59 minutes 58 seconds, I and thousands of our fans were treated to an outstanding athletic event," John Ziegler, the president of the NHL, said in a statement released with yesterday's ruling.
"Thereafter, the beauty, the effort, the discipline, the dedication and the skill that had been invested was trashed by a complete lack of respect for NHL rules and principles."
The investigation - conducted by Brian O'Neill, the league's executive vice president - and the ruling centered on the ugly events that transpired after the game's final face-off and its official conclusion.
The Islanders were on the verge of losing the game and had seen seen LaFontaine wheeled off on a stretcher after being knocked unconscious with barely more than a minute to go in the third period.
They sent their top fighters onto the ice with just two seconds left and the face-off deep in their zone.
Upon the drop of the puck and the nearly simultaneous expiration of the clock, Vukota, who accumulated 290 minutes in penalties this season, skated directly across the zone and pummeled Jeff Bloemberg, a rookie defenseman for the Rangers who does not fight.
Meanwhile, Baumgartner leveled King and eventually dragged him into a fight.
Baumgartner and Vukota were hit with game misconduct penalties, with Baumgartner being assessed a double game misconduct.
One of those, given for being the third man into an altercation, was rescinded Friday by O'Neill.
The scene then degenerated as the fighting escalated to involve more players, and the Garden crowd hurled garbage on the ice.
Ziegler watched from the loge section, visibly upset.
Vukota's suspension and the $25,000 fine, both of which cannot be appealed, according to a league spokesman, were enforced under rule 54(g).
The rule states that any player instigating a fight at a time other than during the course of a game shall be suspended and his team shall be fined.
by CNB