Bench-Clearing Brawl Ends High School Hockey Game
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A high school hockey game became the site of a bench-clearing brawl Thursday night.
Video of the fight at the end of the section playoff game between Bloomington-Jefferson and Holy Angels was posted on Twitter.
It shows the teams fighting just after Jefferson won the game.
Some fans can be heard yelling, "Let's go!" as the players fought on the ice.
Eventually, coaches from both teams were able to break it up.
"For teams that only play about once a year and only meet in sections, they sure don't seem to like each other very much," former Holy Angels hockey player Tim Rollwagen said.
His ice time is spent on a Friday men's league these days, but Rollwagen remembers when his school and Jefferson used to play at the state tournament.
Somewhere around the second period Thursday night, he says the game took on that old "win or go home" feel.
"It picked up. Student sections I know were both getting fired up on the big hits," Rollwagen said. "And you get a little noise going and I think the players kind of feel that and kind of, you know, ramp it up themselves."
Holy Angels pulled their goalie with just over a second left in the game, hoping to crash the net.
"It was just like a rugby scrum, you know, from the top of the puck and then tensions just got out of control from there," Rollwagen said.
As the clock hit zero, a few shoves quickly turned into a bench-clearing brawl, with some fans encouraging the fight.
"It was a little bit ugly," Rollwagen said. "But, you know, I don't know that I've ever seen both benches kind of clear like that in a high school game so it was interesting."
The fight lasted about a minute. No one was hurt at the time and no penalties were issued to either team.
But both schools are still investigating the brawl.
Even though Jefferson won and is a rival, Rollwagen hopes the high school league doesn't put them in a penalty box.
"To me it was, I don't know, something I think you just kind of put behind you and let them move on," he said.
Police were also called to make sure the fight didn't move outside of the Bloomington Ice Garden.
Section 2AA manager Ted Schultz says he's confident both schools are dealing with this situation.
Jefferson is set to play number-one seed Edina on Saturday.
