February 14, 2008
Canisius' Hudson, RIT Walton Suspended For Rest of Regular Season
CHN Staff Report
Atlantic Hockey has suspended eight players that participated in the Feb. 9 brawl between RIT and Canisius, including punishing Carl Hudson (Canisius) and Ricky Walton (RIT) for the rest of the regular season.
The punishments work out to three extra games for Hudson and five extra for Walton. RIT is appealing the decision.
With RIT ahead 3-1 in the third period, a fight started in the RIT zone. After things had started to subside, Walton punched a Canisius player from behind. Hudson then left the penalty box to re-join the fight. Later, he repeatedly slammed the head of an RIT player into the ice.
As a result of the melee, 15 players were given penalties, including eight from Canisius. There were four game disqualifications to Canisius players, including two to Hudson. Two DQs is the equivalent of three games suspension.
Commissioner Bob DeGregorio and supervisor of officials Gene Binda reviewed tapes from the incident, which led to 251 penalty minutes.
"Atlantic Hockey, the NCAA and the culture of collegiate hockey will not allow or condone fighting," DeGregorio said. "This was not representative of the student-athlete experience that Atlantic Hockey and its members are striving to achieve."
Canisius players receiving additional one-game suspensions were Phil Rauch, Taylor Anderson, Jason Weeks, and Carl Hudson. For RIT, the suspensions went to Tyler Mazzei, Louis Menard, Stephen Burns and Ricky Walton.
"We fully support the decisions made by the commissioner and his staff," Maher said of Atlantic Hockey commissioner Bob DeGregorio's decision. "These suspensions are both substantial and appropriate under the circumstances. We have high expectations and standards for our student-athletes and in this case we failed to meet those standards. We regret that this incident occurred, however, now that the suspensions have been finalized, we intend to use this experience as a teaching opportunity and to reinforce Canisius College's commitment to the highest levels of sportsmanship."
The penalties assessed within the game included:
Canisius
Goalie Taylor Anderson — leaving the crease, fighting, game DQ
Taylor Anderson — fighting, game DQ
Josh Heidinger — double roughing, fighting, game DQ
David Kasch — double roughing, misconduct
Phil Rauch — double roughing, misconduct
Cory Conacher — double roughing, misconduct
Jason Weeks — double roughing, misconduct
Carl Hudson — fighting, misconduct, 2 game DQs
RIT
Goalie Louis Menard — leaving the crease, fighting, game DQ
Ricky Walton — fighting, game DQ
Tyler Mazzei — misconduct
Stephen Burns — double roughing, misconduct
Anton Kharin — double roughing, misconduct
Justin Hofstetter — double roughing, misconduct
Brent Patry — double roughing, misconduct
That's 15 players involved total. Canisius had eight players involved, four DQs, four fighting majors, five misconducts, and 10 roughing minors. RIT had seven players involved, two DQs, two fighting majors, five misconducts, and eight roughing minors.
It's interesting that when the suspensions were first announced, both coaches were dripping with political correctness. "We fully support the decisions made by the commissioner..." But now that some suspensions have been extended through the end of the season, here come the appeals! So much for the "we support the decisions" attitude!
Feb 14 2008, 3:54 pm by Ren, Boston MA
This is completely wrong information. The league's announcement on Wednesday night never ever said how many games each player was given. It said that each player was given additional games (not an additional game). It wasn't until USCHO's Jim Connelly dug deeper and reported that Hudson and Walton were gone for the rest of the season that anyone knew the real story. Canisius issued its release in the interim, which should've clued people in to the fact that it wasn't just single game suspensions.
If news folks simply didn't their jobs and asked questions instead of interpreting press releases, there wouldn't be so much misinformation out there.
Feb 14 2008, 4:53 pm by Joe, Buffalo, NY
If that's wrong info, we'll correct it. However, Atlantic Hockey's original release was vague at best. If the wrong assumption was made regarding "game" vs. "games", then that was a bad assumption to make, perhaps - but we certainly weren't alone. ... The press release had a lot of information left out, apparently. Why? ... Canisius' release just came today, one day later than the AH release, which was the first clue about Hudson's actual penalty. ... News folks shouldn't be interpreting press releases. We expect the release to give the actual information to begin with. We do regret making an incorrect assumption, however.
Feb 14 2008, 5:01 pm by CHN Editor
Corrections have been made to this article. Note, another factor in the misleading information was that RIT AD Lou Spiotti was quoted in the original Atlantic Hockey release saying he fully supported the penalties. ... Later, we find out they are appealing Walton's suspension. This is what further led to the impression that there were additional penalties tacked on after the initial release. ... Once again, we regret the errors.
Feb 14 2008, 5:08 pm by CHN Editor
You make a good point that the releases were confusing, but I'm sure that if you called the folks at Atlantic Hockey you would've gotten the correct answer. Glad to see it's correct now.
Feb 14 2008, 5:56 pm by Joe, Buffalo, NY
Oh, I saw this before, when it was called _Slapshot_!
Feb 15 2008, 10:06 am by Chris Haake, Grand Forks ND
and people are complaining about UND
Feb 27 2008, 10:53 am by SARGE, MN
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