Major Brawl Leads to Handful of Suspensions

[PeArD]

KINGSTON, Ont. (CP) - Kingston Frontenacs coach Bruce Cassidy and players Pete Stevens, Bobby Bolt, Kyle Bochek and Justin Wallingford have been suspended indefinitely by the Ontario Hockey League following an ugly brawl late in the game last Saturday.

Cassidy and the players will miss Kingston's home game Friday night versus Owen Sound, then appear at a league hearing Saturday in Toronto to discuss their roles in the incident at the end of a Jan. 27 game versus Belleville, which the Bulls won 5-1.

The four players all received instigator penalties and fighting majors after Kingston rookie Nathan Moon was involved in a fight with Bulls overage defenceman Matt Pelech.

Stevens, Bochek, Wallingford and Bolt all started fights immediately following the resumption of play. Those infractions, instigator penalties in the final five minutes of a game and fighting when a team is trailing by more than two goals, call for a minimum four-game suspension.

Cassidy is being hauled on the carpet to explain his players' actions. General manager Larry Mavety will move behind the bench with Tony Cimellaro in Cassidy's absence. Mavety said the suspensions might be longer.





"It's now up to how the league reviews it," he said. "It's an unfortunate incident and now we have to wait until Saturday to see what impact it has on our hockey club."

Kingston captain Chris Stewart, who hasn't been suspended, must also attend Saturday's meeting. He received a misconduct after the fighting had occurred.

"What happened in Belleville was the heat of the moment," Stewart said. "It happened and now we just have to deal with it.

"(Friday) will be all business."

Cassidy said the Frontenacs were incensed after Pelech chased Moon and started throwing punches at the rookie even after the 17-year-old was on the ice covering up.

"It's up to the league to decide who started what," Cassidy said. "I know after watching what happened to Moon and to (Bobby) Nyholm, the players were all visibly upset.

"I was, too. The emotion of the moment took over for the majority of them. Ultimately I'm responsible for the players on the ice. I'll pay the price for that but I would hope the league sees that it just wasn't the Frontenacs."

Cassidy said, in hindsight, it's easy to say his players should've been smarter in seeking retribution. He said what happened was an isolated incident from his club.

"What happened is out of character for our team," Cassidy said. "It's not out of character for the guys to want to stick up for each other.

"It was just the actions this time."

http://www.tsn.ca/chl/news_story/?ID=194514&hubname=chl

Crazy, I saw a highlight on Sporscenter the other day, and this was pretty nasty.

[GLG]

Cassidy said the Frontenacs were incensed after Pelech chased Moon and started throwing punches at the rookie even after the 17-year-old was on the ice covering up.

This much I agree with. Once the player is down and covering up, that's the white flag, IMO. Pelech should have stopped then.

That doesn't excuse the huge fight afterwards, however. Overreaction.

[Nazzy03]

Theres the vid of it!