Photo gallery: Hit from behind sparks fighting at Hawks game

Bad blood boiled over in a game between the Hawkesbury Hawks and Gloucester Rangers at the Robert Hartley Sports Complex on Friday night, February 19.

The game featured 224 penalty minutes, including six fighting majors. Referee Erik Falardeau issued a total of 14 ten-minute misconducts, including one to Gloucester's Stephen Blunden for a hit from behind on Hawkesbury's Yanik Laliberté, which seemed to incite a riot on ice.

"Blunden hit Laliberté from behind earlier in the year," said Hawks head coach Martin Dagenais. "As a result of that hit, Laliberté missed more than one month of action with a concussion, and Blunden was given a one-game suspension."

"That's how everything got started last night," added the coach. "Blunden hit Laliberté from behind again, and we felt that it was premeditated."

The hometown Hawks, who were trailing only 1-0 at the end the first period, got themselves into penalty trouble in the second period, allowing Gloucester to score three goals on a seven-minute power play.

With just over two minutes remaining in the second, a clearly wounded Laliberté scored the Hawks' first goal of the game.

As the horn sounded to end the period, tempers flared and a fight broke out between Laliberté and Gloucester's Nick Vidoni, leading to both players being ejected from the game.

The officiating crew of referee Falardeau and linesmen Jason Blakeney and John Moulton were quickly critized by Dagenais following the altercation at the end of the middle frame: "Falardeau lost control of the game at the end of the second period. Everyone could see that the game was getting out of hand, except for him."

Asked about the work of the linesmen during the countless fights that took place, Dagenais was quoted as saying, "Both linesmen are too small to be working in our league."

"Gloucester sends a 6'2", 200-pound twenty-year-old to fight our 5'6", 135-pound sixteen-year-old and the linesmen weren't even strong enough to break it up. That's a joke," stated a visibly angered Dagenais.

Trailing by three goals at the start of the final period, the Hawks would score a quick goal and get back into striking distance when Jeremy Melbye scored on an incredible end-to-end effort.

However, Gloucester would strike back quickly with two more power play goals in the third period, beating the Hawks by a final score of 6-2.

In a game that was so marred with violence, Laliberté was the only player to sustain any noticeable injury. "Yanik is banged up, but knowing Yanik he won't miss a game," said Dagenais. "He might be the smallest player in the league, but he's also one of the toughest."

The Hawks will play their second-to-last home game of the season this Friday, February 26 at 7:45 p.m. against the Pembroke Lumber Kings.