PR - Spirit

Spirit and Blackhawks duke ‘em out

Talk about a spirited affair. The Guelph Spirit and the Chicago Blackhawks had themselves a heck of an affair on the weekend. Things started nasty and early. Two of the Spirit’s punishing defencemen, Colin White and Dion Phaneuf, found themselves in the box, White for calling Randy Robitaille a “sissy” and Phaneuf for spearing Bryan Berard. The game went downhill from there. Sergei Fedorov, of all people, took a run at Marian Hossa, picking up an elbowing penalty. Thomas Vanek, the Spirit rookie, cross-checked Robitaille into the boards from behind, getting four minutes for his troubles. He didn’t go to the box alone, however, as Berard threw a vicious elbow at him. Robitaille sought his revenge later in the period, leaving his feet to take down Zach Parise, the Spirit’s skilled centreman, knocking him out of the game. Winger Kris Kolanos dealt Robitaille an elbow to the head, leaving Robitaille with a headache and a game misconduct and Kolanos with a ten minute misconduct to think about his misdeeds.

The second period was no less savage. Ryan O’Byrne collected a charging minor one minute in. Less than three minutes later, Phaneuf and Eric Lindros dropped the gloves, thrilling the fans with some no-holds-barred fisticuffs. Phaneuf found himself the object of the referee’s ire, receiving a game misconduct. Before the period was out Janne Niinimaa had a boarding minor, Hal Gill had an elbowing double-minor and Lindros had another charging minor in an unsuccessful attempt to challenge White to a fight. In between there were five goals scored, but the focus was on the physical play, which claimed another casualty as Spirit winger Matt Pettinger left the game.

In the third period, Lindros again tried to goad White into a fight, picking up an upsportsmanlike call for taunting. JP Dumont ran over Hossa and Vladislav Evseev picked up two minutes for making obscene gestures. White drew a two minute charging call when he flattened Byrne with three minutes to go. As soon as he stepped back on the ice, Byrne took a run at him and the punch-filled battle settled in a draw.

The game even went to overtime, where Berard left the game limping after a Chris Phillips hit. Radek Bonk eventually scored the game winner for the Spirit, but the talk afterwards was all about the nastiness that seemed to come out of nowhere. Games 85 and 92 are now being breathlessly anticipated by fans of both squads for the next round in this new rivalry.

After the game word came down that Dion Phaneuf had been suspended for a game. Phaneuf had previously received a five game suspension earlier in the season, so the league had little pity for him. Phaneuf expressed defiance and committed to being ready for the next matchup with the Blackhawks.

For those interested, here is the scoresheet for a great contest. The Blackhawks had 40 PIM and the Spirit 47 PIM. Not one of the penalties was for something whimpy like tripping or hooking.

Period 1
NO SCORING

PENALTIES: C. WHITE Spi (UNSPORTSMANLIKE-CONDUCT, Minor) 03:29, D. PHANEUF Spi (SPEARING, Major) 04:36, S. FEDOROV Blk (ELBOWING, Minor) 11:24, B. BERARD Blk (ELBOWING, Minor) 12:36, T. VANEK Spi (CROSS-CHECKING, Double Minor) 12:36, R. ROBITAILLE Blk (CHARGING, Minor, Game Misconduct) 17:41 (Served by Craig Rivet), K. KOLANOS Spi (ELBOWING, Minor, Misconduct) 17:41

Period 2
1. SPIRIT, MURRAY 6 (VANEK, BOYCHUK) (PP), 02:50
2. SPIRIT, KALTEVA 1 (VANEK, STEEN) (PP), 08:16
3. SPIRIT, KOLANOS 8 (BONK, MURRAY) (PP), 17:03
4. BLACKHAWKS, FEDOROV 5 (SATAN, CHRISTENSEN), 18:29
5. BLACKHAWKS, SPANHEL 2 (DUMONT), 19:40

PENALTIES: R. O'BYRNE Blk (CHARGING, Minor) 01:00, E. LINDROS Blk (FIGHTING) 03:49, D. PHANEUF Spi (FIGHTING, Game Misconduct) 03:49, J. NIINIMAA Blk (BOARDING, Minor) 07:25, H. GILL Blk (ELBOWING, Double Minor) 10:01, E. LINDROS Blk (CHARGING, Minor) 16:10

Period 3
6. BLACKHAWKS, DUMONT 2 (BERARD) (PP), 14:59

PENALTIES: E. LINDROS Blk (UNSPORTSMANLIKE-CONDUCT, Minor) 02:13, J. DUMONT Blk (CHARGING, Minor) 11:29, V. EVSEEV Spi (UNSPORTSMANLIKE-CONDUCT, Minor) 14:26, C. WHITE Spi (CHARGING, Minor) 16:39, R. O'BYRNE Blk (FIGHTING) 19:00, C. WHITE Spi (FIGHTING) 19:00

Overtime
7. SPIRIT, BONK 6 (EVSEEV, HOSSA), 04:40