No excuse

“I went to the fights last night and a hockey game broke out,” the late, great Rodney Dangerfield once observed.
Who knows what he might have said had he been at the Ice for Kids Arena here last night?
Sure, despite its long reputation for the rough stuff (remember “Slapshot”), hockey is a physical game. It’s about making a statment and intimidating your opponent. As such, one can expect tempers to flare from time to time, or normally cool-headed people to blow a gasket.
There is stick work, and cheap shots—and the inevitable retaliation.
But what happened after the final whistle of the Borderland Thunder-Dryden Ice Dogs game was not hockey. It was not normal. It was not something any fan, especially young, impressionable ones, should have witnessed.
It was a disgrace.
The excuses, of course, started flowing almost as fast as the blood. Dryden head coach Larry Wintoneak saw a Thunder player “sucker punch” one of his guys. Thunder head coach Dave Allison said Mr. Wintoneak “suckered” him. A stick came flying from the Ice Dogs’ bench towards the Thunder one.
Thunder assistant coach Greg Madill said he didn’t regret the incident, saying they (the Ice Dogs) “had it coming for a long time,” noting when the referee turns his back, “they try and try and try to egg us on all the time. We’ve been holding back for a long time, and then it just boils over.”
The bottom line is there’s no excuse. The utter lack of discipline, restraint, and judgment exhibited by the players and coaches—beyond marring what had been an impressive Thunder win—tarnished both teams, the SIJHL, and hockey.
The league did react swiftly. Three Thunder players and two Ice Dogs were handed one-game suspensions. Mr. Allison and Mr. Madill are gone for six games and three games, respectively, Mr. Wintoneak will miss seven games, and Ice Dogs trainer Kevin McCallum got a three-game sentence.
Rebuilding the SIJHL’s reputation will take much longer.