ORLANDO, Fla. – With the playoffs just a few days away, SPHL Commissioner Jim Combs needed to be quick yet firm with his decisions stemming from the Fayetteville – Knoxville game last Saturday. He was both. Tuesday afternoon, Combs announced his ruling on further suspensions following the game which was marred by a bench-clearing brawl and was declared a forfeit when Fayetteville did not have enough skaters available midway through the third period of the contest. In all, eight players will sit for anywhere from one to eight games starting Friday night when the two teams meet in the first round of the playoffs. Both coaches will be missing also as each was hit a two-game suspension. “Obviously we could have continued to go through and pick this player and that player and continue to fine and suspend and made it end up to where nobody was on the ice. We wanted to get the major players that were the biggest facilitators of this event. We had to get the first player who came off the bench for each team,” Combs said. “We looked at probably no less than six videos and over 140 still frames and we had reports from everyone that we could – the officials, other owners, players, coaches and let them know that this is unacceptable.” For those who missed it, the bench-clearing brawl at the end of the second period ended with 19 players and Fayetteville coach Tommy Stewart ejected from the contest. Three more players were tossed in the third, leaving Fayetteville with just five skaters and a goalie while Knoxville had seven and a net minder. The FireAntz took three successive delay of game calls midway through the third period, forcing referee Travis Smith to declare it a forfeit when Fayetteville had just two players left in front of the net. When game one of the best-of three series begins Friday in Fayetteville, the visiting Ice Bears will be without coach Marc Rodgers, who will be sitting out the first two games for “failing to control his bench during an altercation”. Fayetteville bench boss Stewart will serve the same two-game banishment. Player-wise, Knoxville will be without forward Darcy Rees for eight games, forward Taylor Hustead for five games and forward Tim Vitek for two. The FireAntz will lose forward Murray Free for six games, defenseman Nick Bydal for five games, forward Brett Needham for three and forward Rob Sich for one game. Any suspension that is not completed during the playoffs will be completed at the beginning of the 2010-2011 season. With the playoffs starting later this week, Combs said that the league wanted to make a decision but that as a group, it was more important to be correct with the decision that was made than to speed through it. “We wanted to make sure that one, we’re not penalizing a player that doesn’t need to be penalized and two, if we penalize somebody, we better be darn sure it was that person,” he said. “We did have a committee already put together of three governors from the league that reviewed it along with myself and Doug Price (SPHL V.P. of Hockey Operations). We went through and we worked on it for the last two days. We had a conference call today for about an hour and a half and went through each suspension for each person. The question was did somebody else need to be suspended, are we missing somebody that does deserve it and needs to in there or not. We felt that we hit all of the suspects and all of the people that needed to be addressed.” Rees was the hardest hit under Rule 29 (Supplementary Discipline) for his role in escalating the fracas. The video showed that he had grabbed Sich, who was on the ice, and dragged him into the Knoxville bench, sending the brawl into a whole new level of ferociousness. When Sich disappeared from sight, the entire Fayetteville bench emptied and made a beeline to the Ice Bears area. The video also identified Hustead as the first player to leave the Knoxville bench and engaging in the altercation. Vitek, who plays on a like with SPHL scoring champion Kevin Swider, was hit with his suspension for being identified as having pulled an other Fayetteville player (identified by some as Bydal) over the boards and into the bench area. Fayetteville’s Free was hit for six games for a pair of infractions. He was assessed a game misconduct under Rule 70.6 for “returning to the ice after being ordered to the dressing room”. That violation carries with it an automatic five game ban. He also received one game and a fine for making obscene gestures toward the Knoxville crowd. Bydal was identified as the first Fayetteville player off the bench during the fight, earning himself five games off under Rule 70.10. Needham was given three games off for making obscene gestures at the fans as well as “deliberately leaping into the Knoxville bench in an attempt to continue the altercation.” Sich, the league’s top goal scorer, was given a game misconduct under Rule 47.7 for fighting off the ice. It was his fourth gamer of the regular season, thus earning him one game off. Combs was quick to point out that although Sich was pulled into the bench area, he was far from being an innocent bystander in the melee. “You could probably pick four reasons why he (Sich) got a game misconduct. Continuing an altercation is an easy one,” Combs said. “There was no way that he didn’t deserve nothing so a one game misconduct is not a far stretch and he can sit for a game.” As far as the forfeit, Combs laid the blame at the feet of Stewart and the FireAntz, hitting the franchise with the largest fine ever levied in the history of the league (some of which will come out of Stewart’s pocket according to Combs) as well as suspending the coach for the first five games of the 2010-2011 season. As far as league policy and standards, Combs said that referee Smith did the correct thing in starting the third period, even though both benches were extremely thin. The commissioner said that as long as both teams had five skaters and a goalie, the game should be finished. He also added that Fayetteville should bear responsibility for its actions in the form of the deliberate delay of game penalties. “Nobody wants it to get to what it was,” he said. “Fayetteville has got to take some responsibility (for the forfeit).” Knowing that the two team will face each other over the weekend with the President’s Cup as the ultimate goal, Combs said he felt no dialogue was needed about leaving the events of last weekend outside the building come Friday. He also said that the league would not be lenient just because it is the playoffs should another event take place. “To be honest we didn’t discuss it. They understand where we stand at this point,” he said. “There’s enough blame to go around on both sides in this situation. Everybody knows we’re not afraid to suspend anybody, regardless of what the consequences are. One team is going to be short three guys while the other team is short four. If they want to mess around in the playoffs, go ahead.” Combs did add that a representative of the league will be in attendance on Friday as a reminder that the SPHL is watching both sides. “They’ll know that either myself or Doug will be in the building at some point,” he said. Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.