The gloves come off as the teams accumulate 158 penalty minutes plus several game misconducts.
LEWISTON – For nearly 40 minutes on Saturday night, the ice at the Central Maine Civic Center looked like a hockey player’s graveyard.
Helmets, sticks, gloves, and jerseys were strewn across the white surface, while mayhem continued alongside the home bench.
Several players from the Baie-Comeau bench rushed to the ice, apparently in defense of two players caught up in a fight along the Maineiacs’ bench. After a few seconds, the fight spread, involving everyone left on the bench.
The fisticuffs overshadowed the final score, a solid 5-0 win for the home team, it’s second shutout in as many games.
“I feel the need to apologize to the fans,” said Maineiacs coach Ed Harding. “This is not what we are all about. I thought up to that point we had played a solid hockey game, and we had kept our reactions to a minimum. I will never tell our players to go after anyone else, but I am not going to stop them from defending themselves.”
After three players locked up in fights surrounding goalie Brandon Verge’s net, Baie-Comeau goaltender Julien Walsh skated the length of the ice to assist a teammate in a fight. Verge stepped in to defend his player and the goaltenders were ejected.
“I cannot control what my players do when they are on the ice,” said Drakkar coach Martin Laperierre. “I did not tell them to after the other bench, but when they saw three of their guys on the bench going after ours, they reacted.”
According to Harding, the Drakkar’s history of chippy play helped to incite the brawl.
“I believe he sent his players,” said Harding. “The league is going to have to take a look at this and make a decision. Some players from both teams will be suspended for sure. We will have to see who and for how long. This happened already with them once this season in Chicoutimi, and for as long as I have known, Baie-Comeau is a dirty team.”
Laperierre claims to have seen a Lewiston trainer open the door to the home bench and start attacking one of his players.
“To attack a player like that is wrong,” said Laperierre. “He is a grown adult and he was after a 17-year-old. I asked the cops to do something about it and they didn’t.”
The police did restrain one Baie-Comeau player in the second period after that player allegedly spit at a fan. Not knowing that it was a police officer holding him, the Baie-Comeau forward flung the officer to the ground outside the visitor’s dressing room. Several other police officers converged on the scene and the player, Alexandre Lamarche, was handcuffed. He was later released.
In all, 158 penalty minutes were called against the two teams, not counting 10-minute misconducts or game misconducts, which no longer count as official penalty minutes in the QMJHL.
Of the 20 players dressed for Lewiston, just six finished the game, while eight went the distance for Baie-Comeau.
“I just hope fans realize that what they saw tonight isn’t typical,” said Harding. “I am truly ashamed to have been a part of that. I thought we actually did a pretty good job of avoiding that in the first period.”
In the first period, Lewiston managed three goals, all on the power play. Alex Bourret, Gabriel Balasescu and Jonathan Paiement each netted one in the opening frame.
“To start off the game like that, with three 5-on-3s against us, that’s just a bit ridiculous,” said Laperierre. “We received a memo about criticizing the refs, and I am not going to do that, but anyone there knows what they saw. It was ridiculous.”
In the second, Lewiston added a fourth goal off the stick of Sheldon Wenzel, and Balasescu finished the scoring at 9:40 of the third, with the Maineiacs on a 5-on-4 power play.
“We played well for the most part,” said Harding. “The power play worked well, and, like I said, we stayed out of the box for the most part early.”
Verge made 23 saves in the first 46 minutes of the game before being tossed. Davis stopped three to preserve the combined shutout.
jpelletier@sunjournal.com
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