NHL, Players Salvage Season : Hockey: Agreement in principle ends the sport’s first strike. Regular-season games to resume Sunday.

It’s over.

The first strike in the 75-year-old history of the NHL ended with a handshake between John Ziegler, the league president, and Bob Goodenow, executive director of the players’ association, during the final moments of the 10th day of a stalemate that came very close to canceling the remainder of this season.

When Goodenow arrived at Ziegler’s New York office Friday morning, he found the air-conditioning was broken.

No matter. The two, along with various aides, lawyers, player representatives and negotiators, rolled up their sleeves and sweated through 16 hours, five conference calls, two proposals, various ups and downs and a Friday deadline for salvaging the remaining games to reach an agreement in principle on a collective bargaining agreement that will expire Sept. 15, 1993.

The players will practice today, then resume the season Sunday, finishing the remaining regular-season games.

The Kings will play the Canucks Sunday night in Vancouver, then play host to Vancouver Tuesday night at the Forum beginning at 7:30.

Tickets for April 4, when that final regular-season Forum game was originally scheduled to be played, will be honored Tuesday.

The playoffs will start a week from today. The Kings will either play host to the Oilers or open in Edmonton depending on whether they finish second or third in the Smythe Division. Playoff games will be held on alternate days as originally planned.

The Stanley Cup finals could last until June 12.

“I offer my thanks,” said Ziegler at a midnight EDT news conference in New York, “on behalf of everybody who was working toward this, on behalf of everybody who is a hockey fan.”

Much of the thanks, it would appear, should go to King owner Bruce McNall, who helped lead the moderate forces that finally forged the agreement.

“It’s been a long, long day,” McNall said at his own news conference. “It’s been a long several weeks. But there are a lot of people who deserve credit.

“I’ve been up and down for so long. There were moments when I thought it was over. There were moments when I thought it was good. But I always had faith we would get it done . . .”

McNall singled out his star player and business partner in non-hockey related ventures, Wayne Gretzky, for his input in the settlement. Gretzky was constantly on the phone with Goodenow and others, seeking a solution.

That solution turned out to be a holding action, which avoids several sticking points for a year.

Over that period, a committee representing both parties will study the economics of the game and methods by which both sides can prosper.

The new agreement is similar to the one that expired last September, with some exceptions:

--The season will be expanded by four regular-season games to provide extra revenue. Two of those games will be played on neutral sites.

“We’ll play in Asia, Europe, South America,” McNall said, “wherever we can find ice.”

--The situation with trading cards remains the same. The players will continue to get 68% of the revenue, but that was put in writing along with other licensing agreements. In effect, it makes the owners and players partners in all such agreements.

--The draft is cut from 12 rounds to 11.

--The age to become eligible for free agency is lowered from 31 to 26.

--Playoff revenue is increased from $3.2 million to $7.5 million.

--The tough issue of arbitration has also been put on hold. The players had wanted an independent arbitrator rather than one appointed by the league.

Instead, the system will remain as is for this year.

Beyond that, new salary criteria developed by the economic committee will be the standard.

But that’s only the beginning, according to McNall. The idea is to change the entire economic structure of the league. The NHL will follow the NBA game plan, using revenue sharing and a salary cap, items that could not be implemented, McNall said, on such short notice over the next 12 months.

“John Ziegler keep saying, ‘It doesn’t matter how the ox got into the ditch. We’ve got to get the ox out of the ditch,’ ” Goodenow told reporters. “I’m here to tell you we got the ox out of the ditch.”