Saturday, September 27, 2008 By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TORONTO -- Ruslan Fedotenko has experienced some remarkable things during his 29-plus years. Being part of the Penguins' 5-4 exhibition victory over Toronto at the Air Canada Centre last night doesn't qualify, even though his role was upgraded midway through the game, but several other events do. Scoring both of Tampa Bay's goals during its 2-1 victory in Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup final is one, for starters. Still, for all that Fedotenko has been a part of on the ice, including representing Ukraine in the 2006 Olympics, one of the most critical periods in his life occurred years before he began playing hockey at a high level. And Fedotenko wasn't even aware of it. It was the spring of 1986, and he and his family were living in the suburbs of Kiev. They were pretty much oblivious to one of the most disastrous man-made catastrophes of the 20th century -- the nuclear accident at Chernobyl -- even though it was playing out less than 100 miles away. "It was so secret," Fedotenko said. "People in the U.S. and other countries knew before we did. "The media was told not to tell anybody anything. We didn't know [about the accident] at all for a while. "Firefighters and everybody else, they didn't know what they were dealing with. That's why there were so many casualties. "People died because they weren't prepared to work [in a radioactive setting]." Kiev was in the path of some of the tainted clouds that drifted from Chernobyl and, although there's no firm evidence that any of his family members were directly affected by the fallout, Fedotenko believes at least one family friend might have been. "He was in the Army at the time and went and worked there," Fedotenko said. "He had a couple of health issues, but he's still with us. Post Gazette
