Ducks, Sharks spend three periods fighting, squeeze in some hockey (Video)
The San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks spent their Sunday evening fighting, with breaks to play hockey.
It started in the second period when Ryan Getzlaf and Mirco Mueller were about to drop the gloves, but officials rushed in to break things up. Later in the period, Corey Perry and Tommy Wingels successfully threw down, and the temperatures started rising.
A few more scraps midway through the third period then turned into a full-on linebrawl that sadly didn't come close to getting both goalies involved. Instead, it was Ducks netminder Frederik Andersen getting involved in the fray, while Antti Niemi chilled out in his end:
Among the players getting handed penalty minutes was John Scott of the Sharks, who received 19 total minutes, including a game misconduct and two for leaving the bench to re-engage with Tim Jackman after their first period fight. In doing so, Scott broke NHL rule 70.3, which states:
The player or goalkeeper who was the first or second player to leave the players’ (or penalty bench) during an altercation or for the purpose of starting an altercation, from either or both teams shall be assessed a game misconduct penalty.
You might remember this rule as the one that cost David Clarkson 10 games at the start of last season. (Of course, Wysh jinxed everything with this post on Sunday morning.)
Scott, however, could have made a legal line change (UPDATE: Looks legal to me) and this was just a wrong call by the officials amid all the chaos happening on the ice. The League will certainly review it and determine whether or not Scott just gave us our first suspension for an on-ice incident this season.
In total, the Ducks and Sharks combined for 165 penalty minutes. Oh, and when they played hockey San Jose won 4-1.
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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy
