ECAC Hockey officials are looking into the series of on-ice incidents at the end of Saturday’s Rensselaer-Union game in Albany, N.Y., one of which involved the head coaches getting in a heated dispute.
Videos showed that shoving started as soon as the Engineers won a last-second faceoff in its zone to seal a 2-1 victory over the third-ranked Dutchmen and escalated as Rensselaer players came off their bench to celebrate.
Union captain Mat Bodie is seen delivering a high cross-check to Rensselaer’s Brock Higgs after the faceoff, and other players assemble to create a mass of bodies.
Watch the video:
[youtube_sc url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-AzBqb1h1g]
Union coach Rick Bennett and RPI coach Seth Appert had to be restrained by officials and members of the teams and coaching staffs later.
Another video from a different angle appears to indicate that a shove by Bennett started the coaches’ battle:
[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLkbcsNJIv0]
In a postgame news conference, Bennett said he was embarrassed about his actions and apologized. He declined to comment when asked what led to the scuffle.
Referees handed out 125 minutes worth of penalties after the game, including game disqualifications to Union’s Bodie and Eli Lichtenwald and Rensselaer’s Mike Zalewski and Luke Curadi. Those penalties come with an automatic one-game suspension.
Saturday’s game was a nonconference meeting for the Mayor’s Cup, but ECAC Hockey is reviewing the video from multiple camera angles as well as the reports from game officials, a league spokesperson said Sunday.
Any supplemental discipline likely would be announced early this week.
