{"id":29675,"date":"2008-02-14T13:17:21","date_gmt":"2008-02-14T19:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2008\/02\/14\/this-week-in-atlantic-hockey-feb-14-2008\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:57:10","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:57:10","slug":"this-week-in-atlantic-hockey-feb-14-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/2008\/02\/14\/this-week-in-atlantic-hockey-feb-14-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in Atlantic Hockey: Feb. 14, 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"
It Got Ugly<\/h4>\n
Canisius and RIT have a rivalry dating back to the 1970s. The two schools, located just 65 miles apart down Interstate 90 in Western New York, have played 56 times so far, the last 10 as Division I programs. Prior to that, the teams were conference foes in the ECAC West and the New York Collegiate Hockey Association. <\/p>\n
There has been some bad blood before — a brawl in warm-ups back in the early 1990s, for example — but nothing compared to the melee that occurred between the two teams in the third period of Saturday night’s game at RIT’s Ritter Arena.<\/p>\n
I was fortunate (and unfortunate) to be a witness to the event, and here’s one reporter’s recollection, accompanied by links to some videos.<\/p>\n
With 7:33 to play and RIT leading 3-1, after a whistle just as Canisius crossed the RIT blue line (reportedly for the Griffs having too many men on the ice, a possible explanation for why there are six Canisius skaters involved in the fight), RIT’s Andrew Favot put a late hit on a Canisius player. There had been plenty of those throughout the game as tempers had continued to escalate. <\/p>\n
That simple altercation caused the emotional dam to burst and resulted in a pile-up along the boards with all skaters involved. Canisius’ Carl Hudson threw RIT’s Justin Hofstetter to the ice, and was escorted to the penalty box. Things began to settle down when RIT’s Ricky Walton hit Canisius’ Jason Weeks in the back of the head, re-igniting things and provoking Hudson to come out of the penalty box and rejoin the fray, first attacking Walton and then straddling Favot and repeatedly smashing his helmeted head into the ice.<\/p>\n
RIT goaltender Louis Menard took a few steps from his crease when he saw Hudson come flying out of the penalty box, and this somehow convinced Griffs’ goalie Taylor Anderson to join in the fray. He skated into the RIT zone and squared off with Menard.<\/p>\n
The absurdity of a goaltender’s brawl brought the curtain down on the affair, as over 200 penalty minutes were assessed, including game disqualifications to Walton, Canisius’ Josh Heidinger, Anderson and Menard. Hudson got a double DQ, meaning a three-game suspension. <\/p>\n