Last night's game against Stockton was a thrilling come-from-behind victory for the Gulls in their first home game in more than two weeks, but that in a lot of ways felt like a mere footnote to the slow buildup to the inevitable explosion of after-the-whistle antics that did indeed emerge. Officiating was -- problematic when calls were made, and even more so with the degree to which calls were NOT made. The first ended with a 2-1 Heat lead, but the teams not looking overly mismatched. One Heat goal looked particularly soft, and starter Reto Berra did not take the ice for the second period, later being reported to have taken ill. Boyle took over for the remaining two periods.
Things seriously started to boil over early in the second, when Stockton agitator/punk extraordinaire Lomberg finally was made to answer for his antics, taking a solid beat-down from Melindy. Apparently that wasn't enough punishment for Lomberg, who initiated a re-match RIGHT after the two players were released from the penalty box, leading to automatic ejections for both parties. Keaton Thompson tied the game on a nice PP shot from distance, beating Gillies under his glove arm. Lots of physical targeting of players by Stockton, with a special emphasis on Tropp on his recent return from injury. Special idiocy mention goes to Yevenko, who at one point late in the second, was desperately attempting to get Sabourin to initiate a fight, causing Sabourin to mock his "I'm about to drop the gloves posture". Finally, the antics delayed the game enough that they both got issued misconducts without any additional penalty during that particular stoppage. Tempers had been boiling the whole period, with even normally placid players like Cooper getting in on the fray.
The third began with the score tied and the Gulls facing 71 seconds of 5-on-3 penalty kill -- and the Heat converted with 4 seconds left on the first penalty to take the lead. A couple of minutes later, a scrum (involving a Heat player attempting to draw a cross-checking penalty by pulling a Gulls player's stick into his own chest after the play) eventually boiled over into a Sideroff/Poirer fight, with Tanner Glass getting an additional roughing penalty in the exchange -- much more pushing and shoving went on, but nothing else got called (theme of the night). Tropp stuffed in a rebound that was lying unattended in the crease on the ensuing PP to tie things back up. The PP proved to be the key to the night for the Gulls 10 minutes later, as Glass was again in the box (this time for interference) when Hults managed to put a bouncing puck past Gillies for the eventual game-winning-goal -- White got the assist despite being already down on his knee with a clear injury when the puck came to him. He made his way immediately off the ice afterwards, and didn't even come out for the recognition when he was named first star of the game. Reports say he drove himself home afterwards, so that's somewhat encouraging.
An empty-net goal by Carrick with 68 seconds left ended the competitive portion of the game, but that didn't matter to Yevenko, who assaulted Sabourin next to the Gulls bench with 13 seconds left in the game. Yevenko was assessed a fighting major and a game misconduct as the aggressor, while Sabourin didn't get a fighting call at all. Yevenko should clearly be suspended for at least Saturday's re-match between these same two teams at the VVCC - we'll see if the league does the right thing there.
But it wasn't over. Gazdic started another melee with a cross-check after the final buzzer. During this exchange, which happened on the boards to Boyle's right near the faceoff dot, Tanner Glass skated out from shoving some Gulls and sucker punched Boyle, not once, but twice. Three Gulls took him down for this transgression, but somehow Glass escaped without penalty, as did Gillies who skated into the Gulls zone during the exchange. More than once, the game threatened to devolve into the kind of mass brawl that the WCHL Gulls experienced back in 1999 - the officiating supervisors really need to take a look at the performance of this crew, and do some remedial instruction in game control. The league also should look at what penalties or suspensions the Heat coach should be subject to for at best not controlling his players.
As I mentioned, these same two teams match up again Saturday night -- I'm really hoping they concentrate more on hockey than shenanigans, but I'm not confident of that at all. The Gulls regain the .500 mark at 11-11-1.
Boll was present, but not really making that much of an impression on the overall game, from my observations - not even to the point of being involved in the scrums and shenanigans.