Watch SPHL’s Huntsville Havoc and Mississippi Surge engage in bench-filling brawl (VIDEO)
It's not often you see a bench-clearing brawl occur in a tight game, but that's what happened on Friday night in the SPHL between the Huntsville Havoc and Mississippi Surge.
Late in the third period, with Huntsville protecting a 3-2 lead, a brawl began in front of the Mississippi bench and quickly made its way onto the Mississippi bench. (Hang in there for the entire 3:53; just when you think it ends, it starts right back up.)
"Extra guys in ... three guys in ... goalies fighting ... extra goalies fighting ..."
The bewilderment in the voice of the play-by-play man might be our favorite part of the entire clip.
In total, 129 penalty minutes were handed out just from the brawl. Surge forward Branden Kosolofsky -- the guy who "got a stick out" and is "hitting with a stick" and is a "complete jerk", according to the play-by-play man -- racked up 29 all to himself for the spearing from the bench, among other things.
Here's the third period penalty summary:
YouTube user "brett595", who posted the video, explained, in his opinion, how things got out of hand:
After many missed chances to call spearing Referee Peter MacDougall waited a bit to late to try and control the game.
With just a few minutes left in the 3rd period the Mississippi Surge pull a Havoc player into the bench. Thee Havoc clear their bench to protect their teammate who is getting pummeled by the Surge players.
Referee Peter MacDougall should be the one suspended in my opinion for allowing the game to get that out of hand.
On a positive note the more than 5,000 fans got their monies worth and though enjoyed every minute of it!
A Havoc team employee tells Puck Daddy, "What you don't see after this video ends is when the refs are leading four of our guys off the ice, McGill tries to go after Kosolofsky again and our trainer has to restrain him." Sam Cannata, who earned himself 15 PIMs, had a pretty gnarly cut in his lip afterward.
No word yet as to what sort of discipline will be handed out to both parties.
Huntsville would score two goals on the ensuing power play time and win 5-2. The two sides meet again on Jan. 20 in Mississippi.
Stick-tap Bourne via @brant_kersey and Cambria K.
Follow Sean Leahy on Twitter at @Sean_Leahy