What nobody knows -- at least until now -- is that there was a Rangers-Islanders confrontation that night in the SportsChannel studio where we did pre-game, between-periods and post-game interviews for the Isles telecasts.
On the ice, it was Rangers vs. Islanders, hand-to-hand combat. Off the ice -- in our SportsChannel studio it also was Rangers vs Islanders only with different personal.
For them, it was in Barry Beck and Nick Fotiu -- both injured and in civvies -- against my SC cameraman, my stage manager and me.
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All was quiet in the studio until eight minutes elapsed in the third period with the Isles leading 2-1. Suddenly, we heard a knock on our studio door, located diagonally across from the Rangers dressing room
My stage manager opened it and standing there were a couple of hulks, defenseman Beck and forward Fotiu. "We want to watch the game." said Beck.
"Yeah," snapped Fotiu, "the tv monitor is broken in our room."
Taken realistically, this was a request sounding more like a demand. Or, a demand made to sound like a request. Either way, we didn't like the look nor the sound of these intruders.
"They're Rangers and this is the Islander room," the stage manager whispered. "Let's throw them out."
More easily said than done. A native New Yorker and a friend of mine from his New England Whalers WHA days, Fotiu had been a pal of mine. We even worked together on his autobiography.
"Best we let them in," I said with the utmost reluctance although I wanted no part of any Blueshirt watching the game with us.
The pair surrounded me as our eyes were riveted to the screen. They "ooooed" when the Rangers came close to beating Bill Smith, and I "ahhhed" after Smitty made the save.
Granted our visitors were the soul of decorum, except for one important thing; they were Rangers, our sworn enemies.
What was worse was their having established a beachhead in our room; with no counterattack on our part possible under the circumstances.
Didn't matter. Our guys on the ice maintained the 2-1 lead and now we were just a minute from victory. But now the Rangers were over the blue line and in our zone.
Beck and Fotiu were so hopeful about the Blueshirts attack they leaned forward, transfixed; almost on top of the monitor.
Then they jumped; unfortunately, for joy.
The Rangers Don Maloney swatted a high puck past Smith and into the net. The goal didn't look kosher. Maloney's stick seemed illegally high. But, referee Dave Newell signaled goal!
My cameraman, my stage manager and Yours Truly were too stupefied to even protest, although we knew that the goal should have been disallowed.
The game was tied. We were fit to be tied.
Time ran out; the period was over. Bubbling over with joy, Barry and Nick fled our studio to be with their teammates. We quickly set up for my between periods commentary and, eventually, OT would begin.
"Geez," carped my stage manager, "I hope those guys don't come back, and, if they try, should I keep them out?"
I wanted to say, "yes," but, somehow, it didn't seem right. "Let's just hope they find a monitor somewhere else."
We could hear the Rangers galumphing on to the ice and held our breaths. The sudden-death face-off was about to begin when our studio door opened; no invitations, no "Can we come in?"
Beck and Fotiu re-occupied their beachhead in front of the monitor alongside our piece of turf. As it happened the action on the ice was as up-and-down as a berserk table hockey game.
Second after second; minute after minute the game roared along with the crowd.
The Rangers had a lot -- too many, if you ask me -- of chances but Smitty kept making the saves. Then it happened.
Brent Sutter's shot was stopped by goalie Glen Hanlon but Rangers defenseman Reijo Ruotsalainen cleared the rebound to the weak side but no Ranger got it.
