An ugly incident unfolded during an East Coast Hockey League game on Saturday, as a racial gesture ignited a brawl that saw multiple players seek some retributive justice for the hateful gesture.
With just over six minutes left in overtime of a game between the South Carolina Stingrays and the Jacksonville Icemen, Stingrays forward Andrew Cherniwchan drove hard to the net and took out the Icemen goalie, leading to a skirmish in the corner.
Officials were quick to step in and it appeared as though the situation was defused, as players from both teams made their way to their respective benches. But at some point during their journey off the ice, Icemen defenseman Jacob Panetta made a racial gesture towards the Stingrays’ Jordan Subban — who’s the brother of NHL star P.K. Subban.
Jordan didn’t take kindly to the gesture, for obvious reasons, so he went after Panetta…and so did a few of his teammates.
At least three different Stingrays could be see throwing punches at Panetta, who was the victim of some rather nasty uppercuts from South Carolina tough guy Nico Blachman. Here’s a look at how it all played out:
Jordan’s brother, PK Subban, was quick to hop on Twitter and call out Panetta for his racial actions while posting an alternate view of the fight.
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral NHL stories via Google! Follow Us
When it was all said and done, both Panetta and Blachman were each handed 27 minutes in penalties, while Subban was hit with a two minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and a 10 minute misconduct.
You can bet that both Blachman and Panetta will receive additional punishment from the league, as both could be looking at a rather lengthy suspension — although, it’ll be interesting to see which action receives the stiffer punishment.
Which does the ECHL frown upon more: Racism or retributive justice? We’ll find out soon enough.
Y
