AHL Hockey: Bench Clearing Brawl Leaves 13 Ejected

The first day of NHL action during its lockout-shortened 2013 season did not produce any ejection activity; instead, the AHL took that honor in grand fashion with a large bench-clearing brawl.

Players quickly matched up following Beach-Sheahan at center ice.

A bench-clearing incident during the second period of Saturday's Griffins-IceHogs American Hockey League game resulted in a whopping round of 13 player disqualifications. It all took place with 11:58 remaining in the third period, when Rockford IceHogs right wing Kyle Beach dropped gloves and squared off against Grand Rapids Griffins center Riley Sheahan; teammates of both players followed suit as goalies Petr Mrazek (Griffins) and Carter Hutton (IceHogs) engaged in a classic goalie fight. With equipment strewn across the ice, players from both benches cleared onto the ice, causing a hockey fight delay lasting several minutes while linesmen Dan Dineen & Al Stensland attempted to break up fight after fight while referees Trent Knorr and Joe Sullivan observed and maintained a rap sheet.

At the conclusion of the fighting delay, 13 players were ejected for game misconducts varying from aggressor to leaving the bench penalties in a game that tallied 230 total penalty minutes. At the time of the ejections, the Griffins were leading, 7-4. The Griffins ultimately won the contest, 11-6. The following is a full list of ejected players and reasons for disqualification, as indicated by the official scorer:

Game Misconduct - Aggressor (10 minutes)

IceHogs RW Kyle Beach (+2 min instigating, +5 min fighting, +10 min misconduct - instigating [27 PIM])

Game Misconduct - Secondary Altercation (10 minutes)
Griffins D Gleason Fournier (+ 5 min fighting)
Griffins D Brian Lashoff (+5 min fighting)
Griffins G Petr Mrazek (+5 min fighting)
Griffins RW Francis Pare (+5 min fighting)
Griffins LW Tomas Tatar (+5 min fighting)
IceHogs LW Wade Brookbank (+5 min fighting)
IceHogs D Adam Clendening (+5 min fighting)
IceHogs G Carter Hutton (+5 min fighting)
IceHogs D Shawn Lalonde (+5 min fighting)
IceHogs RW Philippe Paradis (+5 min fighting)

Game Misconduct - Leaving the Bench or Third Man In (10 minutes; specified below)
IceHogs C Rob Flick (leaving the bench)
IceHogs LW Kenndal McArdle (third man in)

*Griffins C Riley Sheahan was not ejected but did receive a five-minute major for fighting.

If you're thinking about records, this 13-casualty, 230 PIM affair doesn't even come close. The October 14, 1981 tilt between the Adirondack Red Wings and Hershey Bears resulted in 520 total penalty minutes (264 for Adirondack, 256 for Hershey) and 39 total misconducts (20 & 19), though it was the 1986-87 Bears who established the seasonal PIM record at 2,872 minutes. Worldwide, the Russian Kontinental Hockey League (KHL)'s Avangard Omsk and Vityaz Chekhov contest of January 9, 2010 produced a world record 707 penalty minutes and resulted in the suspension of the contest 3 minutes and 39 seconds into the first period. The world record fight is available here.

Wrap: Grand Rapids Griffins vs. Rockford IceHogs, 1/19/13
Video: RFD's Kyle Beach is ruled to have instigated a massive ice-wide melee resulting in 13 heave-ho's