MAN ADVANTAGE : Kings Can’t Believe That Goal Calgary Scored With Trainer on Ice Stood Up

Of the many goals scored Thursday night by the Calgary Flames, none upset the Kings more than the fourth.

For those who watched the Kings’ 8-3 loss on television, that was the one that put the Flames ahead, 4-0, just 11 minutes 35 seconds into the first period and prompted a stream of obscenities from Wayne Gretzky.

What set him off?

He thought the Flames had too many men on the ice.

And he was right.

The trespassing Flame was trainer Jim (Bearcat) Murray, who ran onto the ice while the puck was still in play to tend to injured goaltender Mike Vernon, who was punched by the Kings’ Bernie Nicholls.

Referee Bill McCreary, his right arm raised to signify a delayed roughing penalty against Nicholls, appeared to see Murray run onto the ice but allowed play to continue as the Flames moved the puck toward the Kings’ goal.

Only seconds later, Al MacInnis took a centering pass from Hakan Loob and fired the puck over the left shoulder of King goaltender Kelly Hrudey and into the upper right corner of the net.

The Flames were flying, well on their way to a Game 2 rout that put them ahead, 2-0, in the best-of-seven Smythe Division final series.

And Gretzky was about to throw a screaming fit.

But according to John McCauley, the National Hockey League’s supervisor of officials, McCreary handled the play correctly.

NHL rules, McCauley said, do not forbid trainers from running onto the ice while play is in progress.

“There are rules covering coaches and managers coming onto the ice after the start of the game,” said McCauley, who watched the game from the press box, “but there’s nothing about trainers.

“(The officials) don’t have to stop play automatically. Calgary had possession of the puck, so (McCreary) waited until possession changed. As it turned out, the Flames scored.”

Murray said that he assumed the play would be blown dead and he ran out onto the ice so quickly because he though Vernon was more seriously injured than he turned out to be.

Vernon stayed in the game, and Nicholls’ punch, which knocked the goaltender to the ice, was all but forgotten, resulting not even in a penalty.

What prompted Nicholls?

“I have no idea,” Vernon said. “You’d have to ask him. I had my stick out so he wouldn’t come into my crease, and all of a sudden he whacked me one.

“He wound up from right field, for crying out loud.”

Nicholls, though, said that he was hit first by Vernon, and not for the first time. Vernon, he said, frequently attempts to clear out the area in front of the net by poking trespassers with his stick.

“For him to hit me then, when we were killing a penalty, I didn’t think it was called for,” Nicholls said. “But there’s no use hitting him in the stomach or the pads. He deserved what I gave him.”

Vernon, whose jaw was clipped, said he was surprised to be punched because, “usually with Bernie, it’s a stick.”

In fact, in the third period of Game 1 Tuesday night, Vernon said, Nicholls whacked him over the head with his stick.

True enough, Nicholls said.

“Usually, I’ve hit him in the pads, and that didn’t get my point across,” Nicholls said. “Tonight, I think I got my point across.”

But even with Murray on the ice, it didn’t help the Kings, some of whom said they stopped on the play, believing the action would be blown dead.

“A guy was hurt,” said Nicholls, who was in position to know. “Why they didn’t blow it dead is beyond me.”

The officials couldn’t explain it. When McCauley is in attendance, one of them said, they are not allowed to speak to the media.

So, the explanation was left to McCauley, a former official who was forced to retire in 1979 after being punched in the eye by a fan, his vision forever altered.

And he said he’s never experienced anything like it.

“Very unusual,” he said of the play. “Very, very unusual. It was a very unique happening that happened.”

That just about summed it up.