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Phantoms and Pirates Drop the Gloves in Huge Brawl

February 16, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Adirondack Phantoms News Release


With late-game tensions mounting between two teams battling hard, tempers finally boiled over in the form of a huge late-game melee between the Adirondack Phantoms and Portland Pirates on Sunday evening in Lewiston, Maine. The two teams officially combined for 299 penalty minutes while Portland emerged with a hard-fought 2-0 victory in the game.

In the same building where Muhammad Ali won the heavyweight championship of the world over Sonny Liston in 1965, the Phantoms and Pirates blasted away on each other with 21 seconds remaining as several fights broke out all at once. In the midst of all the action was Cal Heeter meeting Louis Domingue for a few throws in the first goalie fight in Adirondack Phantoms' history. Both goalies received misconduct penalties so Yann Danis and Mark Visentin came out to play the final 21 seconds of the game. Danis and Visentin had been the goalie matchup just 48 hours earlier when the Pirates and Phantoms played in Glens Falls when the fireworks that night were provided in the form of a Phantoms-franchise record 100 combined shots.

Both team's head coaches were quick to pin blame at the other side as Terry Murray of Adirondack and Ray Edwards of Portland engaged in some finger-pointing and shouting across the ice from their own benches (the building in Lewiston has the old-school quirk of the benches being located across from each other instead of on the same side as is required in today's arenas).

When the slugfest was all done with, and a yard-sale's worth of equipment was left scattered all over the ice, several players had received game misconducts and both teams had very few bodies left on their bench for the final seconds of the game.

Adirondack and Portland weren't quite finished after that big brawl with 21 seconds remaining however. Tough guys Zack FitzGerald and Derek Mathers took the ice for the ensuing faceoff and both engaged in a couple more bouts at just 18 seconds to go with FitzGerald's intense match with Kyle Hagel serving as the principle altercation in "Round 2."

The way these two teams went at each other in the pair of intense and emotional battles this weekend, it's almost a shame they do not meet again in the 2013-14 season. Things got rather ugly. But it was certainly entertaining.

Adirondack received 179 penalty minutes in the game while Portland was charged with 120. The Adirondack Phantoms established a new team record (as the Adirondack Phantoms) for single-team and combined penalty minutes in a game.

But they fell short of the all-time Phantoms franchise record for penalty minutes that took place during a famous late-game brawl between the Philadelphia Phantoms and Binghamton Senators on December 28, 2003. The Phantoms had 210 combined minutes in that record-setting game that included a legendary leap onto the pile by goalie Neil Little. The combined penalty-minute total of that game was 373.

The Phantoms vs. Pirates pugilism was also shy of the most penalty minutes in Adirondack hockey history. The all-time league highs were established on October 14, 1981 in a game between the Adirondack Red Wings and Hershey Bears with 520 combined minutes and 264 for Adirondack.

As for the game itself, Cal Heeter had made some spectacular saves in the first period preserving a scoreless duel through four Portland power plays. Adirondack had their own surge in the second period but Louis Domingue held steady and kept the game 0-0 through 40 minutes.

Chris Brown would strike in the opening couple minutes of the third period banging through a second-rebound past Cal Heeter from close range for a power-play strike. Brendan Shinnimin scored another power-play goal with seven minutes remaining after a Cal Heeter save deflected into the air off his glove and then Oliver Lauridsen's attempt to bat it away somehow would bounce to the Portland forward's stick.

Portland outshot Adirondack 40-28 in the game. The Phantoms went 0-for-6 on the power play while Portland was 2-for-9.

The Phantoms return to action on Friday night at the Glens Falls Civic Center against the Albany Devils and will be wearing spectacular Olympic-Themed Stars-and-Stripes jerseys to commemorate the Winter Games. The uniforms will be worn for one game only and then fans will have the opportunity to own a piece of history via the postgame game-worn jersey auction. Call the Phantoms for tickets at 518-480-3355.

The Phantoms will travel to the home of their parent club next Saturday for a game against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.



American Hockey League Stories from February 16, 2014


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