Line brawl fun, Texas style, in the CHL between Laredo and Allen (video)
There are two really weird moments in this line brawl and another skirmish between the Central Hockey League's Laredo Bucks and Allen American from Sunday afternoon, which produced 238 penalty minutes.
The first odd moment is at around 1:30 into the clip, where two players are brawling near an open door in the rink and one of the on-ice officials has to literally push the combatants away, lest they fall through the opening. That leads to two zebras tackling the players as they fight.
The other odd moment was when Scott Langdon of Allen skated over pulled A.J. Hau out from the collection of Laredo players celebrating their 2-1 win and tried to rag-doll him. And no one … does … anything. Finally, captain Adam Rivet skates over and breaks it up.
From Kevin Jordan of CHL Insider:
As the third period started, the tensions built between the two teams. The physical play began shortly into the period as Mark Nebus battled with Trevor Hendrikx. Matt Boyd dropped the mitts less than five minutes later with Tyler Ludwig. The Bucks took the lead when David Inman scored his second goal of the night on a powerplay at 14:04. Inman buried the puck between the legs of the Allen goaltender, being assisted by Ryan Sparling and Erik Boisvert. Once the Bucks secured the lead, the game took a very different turn. The Allen Americans head coach was ejected with only 3 minutes left in the game, after he launched a puck across the ice. With a little over ten seconds remaining, the Americans tried to bully the Bucks into a line brawl. After all the equipment was finally cleared off the ice, the Bucks held on for the final seconds to win big at home.
You read that right: Dwight Mullins, former Saskatoon Blade and Minnesota North Stars pick, as given two game misconducts for abuse of officials, sending a puck across the ice in protest. Good times.