ORLANDO, FLA – The game had all the makings of a classic winner-take-all series ending contest. Two physical teams in a win-or-go-home epic with an underlying hatred and animosity that could flare at any moment. It could have been a memorable night for all the right reasons.
Emphasis on could have been.
Sunday night’s Akwesasne Warriors – Thousand Islands FHL playoff game instead turned into a contest that would have made the Hanson brothers of “Slap Shot” fame proud or maybe a little disgusted. The Privateers were awarded a 6-2 victory when the game at the Bonnie Castle Rec Center was called with six minutes remaining in regulation. The reason: a wild melee on the ice that cleared both benches and eventually spilled over into the stands, forcing law enforcement agencies to be called in to restore order. Just after Thousand Islands scored to go ahead 6-2, the game became a footnote. A bench-clearing brawl ensued as the game officials tried in vain to regain control. One newspaper account described a point where the Privateers Brad Smulders had three opponents on top of him “with fists flying”. The emotions even spilled into the stands, creating a dangerous situation. The events that occurred at 13:55 of the third period weren’t detailed in the box score until well into Monday but when they did, all but two of the listings carried the Akwesasne name. Five Warriors – Nicolas Corbeil, Ahmed Mahfouz, Kiawentonteh Swamp, Simon Desormeaux and Jean Rene’ Forget were banished to the locker room. With two others already gone and two more in the box with five-minute fighting majors, it left six available skaters and goalie Alexandre Vincent. In consultation with the league, the game was called at that point and the win given to Thousand Islands.
If this was a once-a-year or longer event, it could be passed off as an emotional response to the stress of the post-season. In this case, however, it is just the latest in a series of events since the middle of January – all of them centered around the Akwesasne team – that begs many questions and even more answers.
The beginning of this tale came in mid-January. Coming off the 2011 FHL championship, Akwesasne had many of the pieces back for another run at the title, including forward Pierre Dagenais, the most valuable player in the playoffs. Under new ownership, for whatever reason, the Warriors were not the dominating force they expected to be. Mired in the bottom half of the standings, Akwesasne was not as much of a threat to the top teams – the first place New Jersey Outlaws and the second place Privateers.
On January 14th, the Cape Cod Bluefins, at that time with former AHL and NHL player Billy Tibbetts as player/head coach, traveled to Akwesasne for a game. On the scoreboard, the Bluefins were having their way, building a 7-1 lead as time ticked away in the third period. The Warriors, utilizing what some thought was a size advantage, began to get more physical. In Tibbetts’ opinion, it was getting too rough and with the safety of his team as the impetus, pulled his squad off the ice. The game was eventually ruled a forfeit with the points in the standings being given to the Warriors.
The FHL held a conference call on January 15th to discuss the situation, deciding that Tibbetts was in the wrong and promptly suspended him for five games. After he served the suspension, Tibbetts was released on January 30th by Bluefins’ owner Mike Nugnes for reasons that were never elaborated upon.
Less than a week after Tibbetts’ release, Thousand Islands was scheduled to go up to visit the Warriors for a Friday night contest. Under first year head coach Marc LeFebvre, the Privateers were having a great season, sitting in the number two spot behind the Outlaws. Prior to boarding the bus, LeFebvre went to team owner Nicole Kirnan – the daughter of league commissioner/founder Don Kirnan – to express his concerns with safety issues regarding going onto Cornwall Island and playing Akwesasne. LeFebvre was not alone as player/assistant Jeff Winchester and eleven other players were unified in their concern over smaller incidents that had apparently occurred in previous trips.
It is not completely clear where the decision came from but Kirnan suspended her coach and the twelve players, a choice that was backed by the league office. In their stead, the league assisted Nicole Kirnan in replacing the players through trades with the Delaware Federals (a replacement team that did not play any home games) and temporary signings.
The game that resulted was a humiliating 25-6 blowout in favor of the Warriors. Dagenais posted a stat line that included eight goals and six assists. Two other teammates, Corbeil and Sylvain Deschatelets, had more than ten points in the game. As word spread about the circumstances surrounding the game, many people saw it as nothing short of a black eye for the FHL and single-A level hockey.
Fast forward to the final weekend of the regular season. The Privateers, with a stable roster, were set to head to Akwesasne for a pair of games that would serve as tune-ups for the post-season as well as being a preview of the coming playoff series between the teams. From the get-go, the game was an offensive shootout with plenty of hooking, slashing and roughing on both sides of the ice.
Late in the second period, Akwesasne’s Mahfouz took a double minor for roughing and was tagged with an unsportsmanlike conduct game misconduct. Less than a minute later, Corbeil was hit with a major penalty and game misconduct for making contact with a Thousand Islands’ player’s head from behind.
Privateers’ owner Kirnan told her team that if any further rough tactics were pulled, she would pull them off the ice and take the forfeit. The game was played to its completion but with the Privateers scheduled to be back in Akwesasne the next night, Kirnan did not want to subject her players to the same treatment as they experienced Friday night. She communicated her feelings to the league office and in the course of the hours following the Friday night game, the FHL announced that Saturday’s game would be cancelled instead of being ruled a forfeit which would have possibly affected the standings.
By noontime on Saturday, the league decided to hold another conference call to discuss that night’s contest. Included in the call was Dagenais, who in his role as assistant coach, was designated to be there. The league brokered a deal whereby Dagenais promised that the Warriors would play a much tamer game and that none of the actions from Friday would be repeated. Nicole Kirnan agreed to send a team up there but when they rolled off the bus, less than a handful of players from Friday’s roster were there. The rest were fill-ins who were signed to one day contracts to play.
The game on March 3rd looked very similar to the one on February 3rd as the final scored ended up 22-8 in favor of Akwesasne. Tempers were held in check on both sides but the scoring wasn’t. Dagenais logged ten goals and four assists for 14 points. Deschatelets racked up ten points with nine being assists.
The Warriors had played without Corbeil, who had been suspended for three games for his hit to the head of an opponent, and Mahfouz who was banned for one game. When the playoffs began, Mahfouz was in the lineup for game one but Corbeil would have to wait of a potential game three or game one of the next round if the Warriors swept the Privateers.
Game one last Friday in Akwesasne was pretty uneventful until the 7:25 mark of the third period when Warriors’ defenseman Carter Trevisani was called for an elbowing major and a game misconduct. Then in overtime, Privateers’ captain Paul Kelly Jr. took a penalty that cost his team the game-winning power play goal by the Warriors Dan Tessier. Kelly was so angry after the loss that he lost his temper and earned an abuse of officials game misconduct. Both Kelly and Trevisani received a one-game suspension, forcing them to watch game two from the stands.
Game two (and later game three) of the series shifted to Alexandria Bay and the Bonnie Castle Rec Center in a nod to containing travel costs for both teams. The Privateers won the game 9-4 thanks to a four-goal outburst by forward Tibor Varga but that wasn’t what had people talking afterwards.
The first period had been quiet by standards with only one minor penalty called. Just shy of the five minute mark of the second, Dagenais had a run-in with Thousand Islands’ defenseman Nick Williams at center ice. When the dust settled, Williams was lying on the ice as the medical staff attended to him before putting him on a backboard for a trip to the hospital. Dagenais was called for contact to the head which drew a five-minute major and a game misconduct – along with an almost certain suspension.
Which brings us to game three.
Nothing really stands out on the score sheet from the first two periods of play. The play was physical but not anything out of the ordinary. With it being a one goal game heading into the third, every player appeared to know that taking dumb penalties was out of the question.
Thousand Islands picked up an early goal to increase the lead. A minute later the Warriors found themselves with a two-man advantage but failed to score. That was not the case when the Privateers had a similar chance. They cashed into make it 5-2 at the 6:30 mark, which is when Akwesasne began to unravel.
Warrior back-up goalie Adam Thompson said something to the referee and was given the gate before the puck was dropped after the score. 27 seconds later, Deschatelets got involved with Thousand Islands’ Kelly and dropped the gloves. When Kelly refused to drop his, Deschatelets took advantage and for his troubles got two minutes for slashing, two minutes for instigating and a game misconduct while his opponent got nothing. Not too long later, the big event happened.
On Monday, the FHL announced suspensions for the Akwesasne team. All told, five of the players were given a grand total of 19 games while Warriors coach Alex Roundpoint was assessed a five-game ban. No Thousand Islands players received any supplemental discipline.
Needless to say, the Akwesasne fans were and still are livid over what they see as less-than-fair treatment of their team by the league. They have leveled accusations against Nicole and Don Kirnan of conspiring against the Warriors, including a phone call to the game referee during the contest at the same time Nicole Kirnan was on her phone (the league office’s explanation was that Ms. Kirnan was facilitating a conference call to decide how to handle the long delay from the Williams’ injury). There was even an allegation of sand and gravel appearing just outside the Akwesasne locker room along the path from the room to the ice (sand and gravel can destroy sharpened skate blades very quickly).
The questions about what has gone on over the last couple of months are numerous. The first is about the Akwesasne team itself – why did they take on the persona of a squad better suited for the movie version of the Federal Hockey League than the real one? The roster was just as talented as the one that took home the first Commissioner’s Cup but for some reason thumbed its nose at skill in favor of intimidation. They used it to steal a win in the Cape Cod forfeit and it almost worked on the last weekend of the regular season. In the end, it prematurely ended any shot at becoming back-to-back champs.
What about Billy Tibbetts, Marc LeFebvre and the players from Thousand Islands who were suspended and eventually sent away from their teams? It now appears that the league and the teams (Cape Cod and Thousand Islands) were quick to judge the people who were sounding the alarm about Akwesasne. It is especially troubling in light of the fact that Privateers owner Nicole Kirnan handed LeFebvre his walking papers and sent twelve players away over the very same complaints she herself expressed a month later. Additionally, why did she only send a handful of regulars to Cornwall Island on the last day of the regular season, especially in light of the fact that the March 4th game was in Cornwall – a place where the league wants to put a team? The taste left in the mouths of fans in Cornwall was not a very good one.
And what of the league’s handling of the entire situation? For whatever reason, it seems as though the FHL was not anxious to deal forcefully with the Warriors. Did the fact that commissioner Don Kirnan’s daughter was complaining have anything to do with the much swifter reaction following game three after Akwesasne had been knocked out of the playoffs?
Representatives of other teams were quick to condemn the actions of Tibbetts, LeFebvre and Nicole Kirnan’s willingness to take a forfeit on March 3rd; however, they were fine with releasing the whistleblowers as a way to rid the league of “traitors”. How would they have reacted if they were in Ms. Kirnan’s position?
Finally, how does the FHL deal with the fans? It is obvious that the league’s members have passionate fan bases but where does the line get drawn when it comes to spewing potentially slanderous statements through social media? Can a line be drawn at all?
If the FHL is to continue ahead into the future, the soul searching needs to begin now.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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