It was a busy night for the three-man NAHL officiating crew as the St. Cloud Norsemen and Bismarck Bobcats combined for 271 minutes in penalties.
Most of those minutes came in a full-on line brawl that erupted in the third period. Bismarck’s VFW Center looked like a scene straight out of Slap Shop, with sticks and gloves all over the ice as players paired off to scrap.
Referee Shawn Cornock filled up the boxes while linesmen Alex Keers and Nicholas Seppala did their best to keep ’em separated on the ice.
When the dust settled St. Cloud’s Jake Hosszu was atop the leaderboard with 94 penalty minutes, including penalties for roughing, cross-checking, fighting, instigating, continuing an altercation, and abuse of officials. Wearing #4 in black, he can be seen in the video wrestling with both linesmen before Keers is able to corral him into the penalty box.
Hosszu and teammate Wyatt Wurst – with a measly 17 penalty minutes – were listed as suspended on St. Cloud’s line chart prior to Sunday’s game, as reported by The Rink Live.
The NAHL has made no announcement regarding supplementary discipline or suspensions for the players involved.
Hosszu now leads the NAHL in penalty minutes with 98 in just five games. Coming into Saturday’s match, he had only four. He’s trailed by Bismarck’s Adam Pietila, who picked up 69 of his 71 penalty minutes in the same game.
