LEWISTON – The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League handed down preliminary suspensions Sunday for several players involved in Saturday’s melee during the Lewiston Maineiacs game at the Central Maine Civic Center.

Based solely on the referees’ report, six Baie-Comeau players were suspended for at least one game. Their coach, Martin Laperriere, received a two-game suspension.

“You cannot leave the bench during an altercation,” said Maurice Filion, the league’s disciplinary perfect. “The reason these players have been suspended, based on the referee’s report, is because they left the bench during a fight. Since no Lewiston players left their bench, they did not yet receive any suspensions.”

During the third period of Saturday’s 5-0 win over the Drakkar, two separate fights broke out around Maineiac goaltender Brandon Verge’s net. A third blossomed near the Maineiacs’ bench.

“From what I saw, their No. 2, (Ryan) Hand, gave Verge a shove at about 14 minutes left,” said Maineiacs coach Ed Harding on Sunday after reviewing a tape of the game. “At 13:36, Verge tied the puck up, and (Pierre-Luc) Leblond gave him an extra whack. A few people squared off at that point, and I think the officials did a good job to keeping things at that, but then on the next faceoff, Hand jumped (Maineiacs’ forward Kevin) Turgeon right off the faceoff and started swinging. Another player jumped (Kevin) Talbot. The whole thing then just led to our side of the ice.”

Since the fight ended up in the home bench, and since the Baie-Comeau bench cleared, the suspensions handed down on Sunday were automatic to the Drakkar players. No Maineiacs player left the bench to join in the fighting, so no Maineiacs were immediately suspended.

“This is not to say that there won’t be any Lewiston players suspended,” said Filion, “but I have not seen the tape yet to make that determination. When I do, we will take the appropriate action.”

Suspended from Baie Comeau were coach Laperriere (two games), Jimmy Arsenault (six games), Pierre-Luc Leblond-Letourneau (two games), Maxime Belanger, Mario Frechette, Martin Mandeville and Luis Tremblay (one game each).

The players will serve the first game of their suspension – for some their only game – on Monday when the Drakkar face Quebec.

League officials said that more punishment may be handed out after they view the game videotape.

“We will abide by whatever the league tells us,” Harding said Sunday. “At this point, after watching the tape, I am not sure that we will have any suspensions at all. I’m not 100 percent sure, obviously, and the league may see it differently. We will go along with whatever they tell us.”

jpelletier@sunjournal.com

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