April 4th, 1998.
With the New York Rangers down 3-0 and only a small window of opportunity left to close the gap, the Rangers upped their physical play against their crosstown rival, the New York Islanders. The game turned ugly pretty quick, with the first batch of fireworks set off by longtime agitator Ulf Samuelsson.
Shortly thereafter, Rangers left winger P.J. Stock locked horns with the Polish Prince, New York Islanders’ very own MAriusz Czerkawski. The two exchanged some jabs, and by exchanged I mean P.J. Stock landed some brutal consecutives the way of Czerkawski. Mariusz wasn’t able to get a hold of Stock, and sensing his teammate was in some serious trouble, goaltender Tommy Salo skated down ice and jumped into the mix.
A casual hockey fan should note here that a goalie ever interfering with an on ice fight is breaking one of the unspoken rules and traditions about the game. Goalies fight goalies, and players fight players. Salo jumping Stock meant Rangers netminder Dan Cloutier could officially enter the melee.
The two locked up, which signaled the beginning of the end for Salo. Cloutier was able to get free from Salo’s grip on the top of his jersey, and unleashed a series of blows onto the backside of Salo. After the linesman jumped in to avoid a fatality, Cloutier took it upon himself to skate by the Islanders box and challenge the entire bench.
This fight was entirely one sided, but it re-ignited an already high profile rivalry between the two teams after the Rangers tried to save face from an embarrassing loss at home. Cloutier developed into somewhat of a cult hero amongst the Rangers faithful for his fight heroics and crass demeanor towards the rest of the Islanders squad, and such is the story of one of the great goalie tangos of our generation.
Travis Yost is a native New Yorker and recent Arizona State University product . He is the team beat writer for the Ottawa Senators over at Hockey Buzz, and covers all sports here at The Prose. 