[UPDATED] Komets brawls with LumberJacks (31 Oct 2009)

Update: IHL announces suspensions

Summary—

Brad MacMillan (FW) - Suspended 15 games

Robin Big Snake (MUS) - Suspended 12 games

Jason Lawmaster (MUS) - Suspended 0 (zero) games

Each player was also fined an undisclosed amount.

Links—

IHL Suspension Notice
http://www.ihl-hockey.com/press/league/index.html?article_id=279

The report from the Journal Gazette's Justin Cohn covering the suspensions is here.

Video: MacMillan suspended 15 games | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091102/BLOGS11/911029953

The report from News-Sentinel's Blake Sebring covering the suspensions. This includes commentary from Brad Jones, who issued the suspensions, as well as from Komets General Manager David Franke and Brad MacMillan.
News-Sentinel.com (Reaction to the suspensions)
http://fwnextweb1.fortwayne.com/ns/sports/tailingthekomets/?p=2705

Here's the only report from the Muskegon Chronicle online about the game. It falsely claims that the entire incident was set off when MacMillan cross-checked Muskegon's Tom Galvin.

Suspensions, fines handed out after Muskegon Lumberjack-Fort Wayne Komet melee | Muskegon Lumberjacks - - MLive.com

http://www.mlive.com/lumberjacks/index.ssf/2009/11/suspensions_fines_handed_out_a.html

Blake Sebring has published his write-up of the events. It was posted before the suspensions were announced.

K's MacMillan may sit out 20 games | The News-Sentinel - Fort Wayne IN
http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091102/SPORTS/911020304/1002

My thoughts—

I'm fine with the suspension given to MacMillan. Big Snake deserved an equal suspension, though, for his specific targeting and surprise attack on Chaulk. Lawmaster definitely deserved a more severe penalty, though, for his even more vicious attack and abuse of Shafronov. It is noteworthy that neither Chaulk nor Shafronov received penalties resulting from the altercation: they didn't even have a chance to fight back.

I've heard various reasonings: that it was retaliation for Schrock's fight with DiPace; that it was retaliation for MacMillan's blows with Bouchard; that it was retaliation for MacMillan poking at the puck as Muskegon's goalie was covering it up. None of these, however, warranted the level of retribution the LumberJacks doled out. I saw the video, and the way MacMillan, who is known to be taking on a more "real" shift this season, crashed the net was textbook: nothing wrong there. The situation was escalated by Muskegon taking offense to the net-crashing, but MacMillan would have none of it. Why Bouchard got in there with him is beyond me, but I notice that MacMillan did NOT continue to attack Bouchard once it was clear he wasn't going to fight. Finally, DiPace is not merely a skill player; he's been known to tango with other known tough-guys, as noted below in my original post. It wasn't like Schrock singled him out and attacked him suddenly and randomly. It was a natural extension of what happens when defensemen protect their goalies.

I don't blame Muskegon for wanting some retaliation from the first fracas, but they overreacted BIG TIME, and in an extremely unsportsmanlike manner. Big Snake got off a bit too easy, and Lawmaster got off WAY too easy.

Game Replay:

According to Blake Sebring's blog, "the Public Access team will show a replay of Saturday’s game at 7 p.m., Wednesday on Comcast Cable Ch. 55 and Verizon Ch. 25, and again at 11 a.m. on Thursday."

Original Post Begins Here

I'm not sure if all of you heard about the melees (yes, more than one) at the Komets game last night, October 31, 2009, at home versus the Muskegon LumberJacks, but here is some summary information and a link that includes video of the altercations.

Let's get this started by showing you what happened. Here's the video:
Komets battling Muskegon
http://www.wane.com/dpp/sports/local_sports/sports_hockey_wane_komets_battle_muskegon_200910312146


This blog post by Justin Cohn, the Journal Gazette's Komets writer who was at the game, gives a bulleted summary of what all happened:
Timeline of craziness | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091031/BLOGS11/910319957/1008/SPORTS

On the above page, Cohn calls John DiPace a skill player. While he is a skill player, he is also known to fight tough guys, including Jeff Zehr (the loser from Port Huron who was attacking our star players behind the play in the 3OT Game 7 Turner Cup victory in 2008), Tyler Willis (Kalamazoo's enforcer for several years), and our own Mitch Woods. For details, see John DiPace - hockeyfights.com.

Cohn also notes that bully Jason Lawmaster went after scorer Konstantin Shafronov, who Cohn also calls "the most gentlemanly player" in the league. For the record, I checked on hockeyfights.com to see who Shaf has fought before — he doesn't even have an entry, despite the fact he's been playing professional hockey for over 20 years. You can check out Konstantin Shafronov's hockey statistics profile at hockeydb.com.


This blog entry from Blake Sebring, the News-Sentinel's Komets writer who was also at the game, has comments from Komets coach Al Sims, LumberJacks coach Rich Kromm, Muskegon's Robin Big Snake, and Fort Wayne's Colin Chaulk.
News-Sentinel.com (More on the altercation)
http://fwnextweb1.fortwayne.com/ns/sports/tailingthekomets/?p=2688


Here are the other articles posted by the Fort Wayne Newspapers' writers about the night's "festivities".

All hell just broke loose | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091031/BLOGS11/910319958

News-Sentinel.com (A Mac attack)
http://fwnextweb1.fortwayne.com/ns/sports/tailingthekomets/?p=2684

What MacMillan had to say | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne,Ind.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091031/BLOGS11/910319956/1008/SPORTS

News-Sentinel.com (What Mac had to say)
http://fwnextweb1.fortwayne.com/ns/sports/tailingthekomets/?p=2686

K's start and finish it, then criticize Kromm | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091031/BLOGS11/910319953/1008/SPORTS


This entry was posted by Justin Cohn while I was writing this up. It includes a photo of Lawmaster bullying Shafronov and a few of Cohn's day-after thoughts.
Here's what K's were peeved about | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091101/BLOGS11/911019980


My own thoughts on it all:

From the way that Muskegon's tough guys jumped our players the way they did, it is my belief that what Muskegon's Lawmaster and Big Snake did to Fort Wayne's Shafronov and Chaulk was much more vicious and premeditated than anything Fort Wayne's MacMillan did. Brad MacMillian is sure to receive the mandatory 10-game minimum suspension for leaving the penalty box on top of the "abuse of officials" (which wasn't really abuse at all, he just brushed off the linesman who skated up to him which caused him to lose his balance and fall because of his own momentum, but nonetheless) suspension, but I hope that Brad Jones, IHL VP of Hockey Operations who deals with suspensions, issues suspensions to both Big Snake and Lawmaster that meet or exceed MacMillan's due to the vicious surprise attacks they perpetrated. Whether 'Jacks coach Kromm is responsible for instructing his fighters to do what they did, I cannot say with authority, but I wouldn't be surprised, and in fact believe it would be fitting and proper, if Kromm was fined or otherwise reprimanded for what transpired.

Kromm claimed that Mac left the penalty box twice. I wasn't at the game, and I didn't see that in the video, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen twice. What I *did* see, however, was Lawmaster savagely attacking one of our top scorers, who has probably never been in a hockey fight, pinning him to the ground and wailing away at his head. I also saw Big Snake leave the penalty box (in the video at the 3:20 mark) to try to fight MacMillan after Mac just finished with Lawmaster. So Lawmaster's suspensions should come from his specific targeting of Shaf (Cohn pointed out he had to skate 40 feet to get to Shaf to start his attack). Big Snake's suspensions should stem from (1), his surprise attack on Chaulk, (2), leaving the penalty box, and (3) from "abusing the officials" when he didn't want to go into the penalty box in the first place (in the video at 2:35). While Big Snake's "abuse" of the linesman may seem smaller-scale than MacMillans (seen at 2:41), a key difference was that Big Snake was actually focused on the linesman whereas MacMillan wasn't even really paying attention to the linesman because he was already zeroed in on taking care of Lawmaster. What MacMillan did is the same type of maneuver that you use in many sports to get away from a defensemen guarding you; it was unfortunate that the linesman went down as he did, but it was mostly from Mac redirecting the linesman's momentum away from himself (it doesn't look like an actual "push" to me).

I understand Mac getting suspensions: I won't argue with whatever he gets. Despite that, I still believe Mac did what he had to do to show those hooligans that their specific targeting and surprise attacks were way out of line. And I believe that as a result of those way-out-of-line acts, Big Snake's and Lawmaster's suspensions must match or surpass MacMillan's for the league to demonstrate that it will also not tolerate that kind of "goonery". The very day before, October 30, a report was published at QConline.com wherein IHL Commissioner Dennis Hextall said he'd like to see physical play, but no "goonery" in our league. The fight between DiPace and Schrock would be allowed under the Commissioner's guidelines, while the attacks on Shafronov and Chaulk most certainly would not.

Other links that may be of interest

The official boxscore from the game:
IHL Stats
http://www.pointstreak.com/stats/pro/boxscore.html?gameid=1057445

At the time of this entry, the Muskegon Chronicle had not posted any articles discussing the game. Feel free to check it later, though.
Muskegon Lumberjacks - MLive.com
http://www.mlive.com/lumberjacks/