There’s no other way to say it other than the Syracuse Crunch and the Rochester Americans seem to really dislike each other.  The Crunch and their fans hate Alexander Salak when he celebrates at the end of the game. Kevin Harvey is also a well known rat around the league that a lot of players dislike.

(video below at the bottom of post)

The Amerks dislike for Harvey goes back to earlier in the season when he laid out a dirty hit on Luke Beaverson which resulted in Beaverson being out injured for 26 games.  Steve MacIntyre apparently cross checked Harvey up high which resulted on Harvey laying on the ice for a couple minutes.  They didn’t show it on TV so I can’t really say what happened, but it’s easy to say that with a 5-1 lead at the time MacIntyre decided it was time to take action.

MacIntyre was assessed a penalty for Attempt/Deliberate injury (21.1), which according to the rule books is the following:

21.1 Match Penalty – A match penalty involves the suspension of a player for the balance of the game and the offender shall be ordered to the dressing room immediately.

A player incurring a match penalty shall incur an automatic fine of two hundred dollars ($200) and the case shall be investigated promptly by the President who shall have full power to impose such further penalty by way of suspension or fine on the penalized player or any other player involved in the altercation.

A match penalty shall be imposed on any player who deliberately attempts to injure an opponent in any manner.

The President, upon further preliminary investigation indicating the probable imposition of supplementary disciplinary action, may order the immediate suspension of a player who has incurred a match penalty under this Rule, pending the final determination of such supplementary disciplinary action.

Anyone else think there was $200 up on the board after the game to pay the fine for him?

Once the final buzzer sounded Salak went to hit the puck like he usually does when he ran into / Sestito ran into Salak and that’s when the pushing and shoving started.  It slowly worked it’s way towards the benches as the players were leaving the ice and you can see Kevin Harvey and Jimmy Bonneau talking.  In a quick moment they start throwing punches.

It’ll be interesting to see if either of them receive any further discipline for fighting after the game was over.  They were both given Game misconducts – Fighting other than during periods of game (47.8) 10 minutes, 5 for fighting, and Harvey was given an extra 10 minute misconduct.

Here’s what the rule book says about 47.8

47.8 Fighting Other Than During the Periods of the Game – Any teams whose players or goalkeepers become involved in an altercation, other than during the periods of the game, shall be fined pursuant to 47.19, in addition to any other appropriate penalties that may be imposed upon the participating players or goalkeepers by supplementary discipline or otherwise.

Players involved in fighting other than during the periods of the game shall be assessed a major penalty and a game misconduct. Should one player be deemed the instigator of the fight, the game misconduct shall not be assessed to his opponent.

Any player who would be deemed to be an instigator pursuant to this rule at a time other than during the periods of the game shall be suspended pursuant to 47.19.

In the case of altercations taking place after the period or game the fine under this rule shall be assessed only in the event that an altercation is commenced after the period or game has terminated.

Should players come onto the ice from their players’ benches after the period ends and prior to the start of an altercation, they shall not be penalized if they remain in the vicinity of their players’ bench and provided they do not get involved in any altercations.

If you watch in the video towards the end he also gave linesman Justin Prusak a little shove.  Enough for even further discipline?  We’ll have to wait and see.

You do have to laugh at Harvey kicking a helmet and then falling.  Good job!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD32X2obpng

April 10th is going to be an interesting game.