The Rockford Ice Hogs and the Chicago Wolves got into it pretty intensely on Sunday night very late in the third period. The Ice Hogs had a powerplay with 12.9 seconds left and with a 2-1 lead they were intent on letting the clock run out.
Ice Hogs forward Ben Smith was then hit through a door that wasn’t closed all the way by Guillaume Desbiens as they were taking the puck up ice. With Desbiens laying on top of Smith, Jeremy Morin threw a punch at Desbiens which set off the fireworks. Guys were squaring off on the ice, reaching across the benches to throw punches and Wolves forward Jim Vandermeer ended up in the Ice Hogs bench fighting Wade Brookbank.
Things would eventually cool off but I have to imagine that some suspensions will be coming. This is the second brawl that the Rockford Ice Hogs have been involved in this year and they were the ones that started this one. The boxscore reads like a laundry list as the two teams combined for 43 penalties for 174 penalty minutes.
This is the second brawl this year that has had a fight going on in the bench, and hopefully this isn’t a new trend. This is something that is extremely dangerous, especially for the player on the opposing team’s bench. Emotions run high and clearly things can get out of hand. That being said, this was a highly entertaining donnybrook.
[YouTube]
