The Richardson Pioneer Weyburn Red Wings fell 4-0 to the Estevan Bruins Friday night, but the talk of the game will be an incident that happened with 1:24 left on the clock.
With just moments left in the game, Weyburn forward Simon Pollock dropped the gloves with Estevan Bruins defenseman Alex Von Sprecken. During the fight, one punch from Von Sprecken caught Pollock, and he collapsed to the ice, seemingly unconscious. Referees instantly called for the trainer, and medical staff came on to the ice almost immediately.
While Pollock was attended to, another altercation broke out, with Estevan’s Zach Burfoot getting involved with Weyburn’s Mi-Kwan Tallman, and Estevan’s Zachary Burns dropping the gloves with Weyburn’s David Chorney. The two Weyburn players weren’t willing participants in the altercations, as they were preoccupied with their teammate who was on the ice.
Referees Al Scott and Luke McGeough told the timekeepers to run the rest of the clock off and sent the teams to the dressing rooms. The Red Wings remains on the ice, though, all taking a knee along centre ice while Pollock was treated. He would be placed onto a stretcher and taken by ambulance to Weyburn General Hospital. As he left the ice, he motioned with his hand to the fans, and his teammates who had by this time gathered at the door of the ice surface.
“Simon is going to be alright,” said Red Wings head coach Cody Mapes. “He’s going to have a headache to deal with here, but overall he is answering the right questions, and everything is functioning properly.”
The game itself saw the Red Wings taking the early play to the Bruins, almost dominating the first period with the exception of one hiccup while on the power play.
Just 42 seconds into the game, Estevan captain Eric Houk was given a double minor for tripping by slew foot. The Red Wings found themselves with an early power play and put the pressure on the Bruins. One miscue, though, had Mitch Kohner pushing the puck into the Weyburn zone, accompanied by Mark Rumsey. The leading scorer on the Bruins roster would take the fee from Kohner and bury it past Weyburn goaltender Dazza Mitchell to make it 1-0.
The rest of the period was back in the hands of the Red Wings, but they found themselves unable to solve Boston Bilous, despite outshooting Weyburn 14-10 in that opening frame.
In the second period, the Bruins would extend the lead, capitalizing on the opportunities presented.
It started with a goal from Cody Davis at the 7:51 mark of the frame, and Eric Houk would score a goal on the power play with 9:39 left on the clock.
The third period saw Rumsey scoring his second of the game, on the power play, just 1:07 in.
“They’re going to get chances, you try to limit them,” said Mapes. “To lose a period 1-0 to them is not an accomplishment by any means but you try to limit what they get, and that quick strike on the power play in the third, the quick strike on the 2-on-2 rush in the second, you gotta try to limit those as much as you can.”
The two teams will meet again Saturday night in Estevan, but both teams could be without the services of a couple of players due to suspension, depending on how it is seen by the league’s disciplinarians.
With the altercations at the end of the game, Chorney and Burns were each given five minutes and game misconduct for fighting, with additional game misconducts for being involved in a secondary altercation within the same stoppage. The normal penalty for that sees each player being suspended for one game. If the league rules that the fight was instigated by Burns, which was the thoughts of many Red Wings fans in attendance, then Burns will see a two-game suspension, and no penalty for Chorney. How the supplemental discipline will be handled won’t be known, however, until after 9:00 a.m. Saturday morning.
You will be able to catch all the action in the game Saturday night on Red Wing Radio BIG106, starting with the pregame show at 7:15 p.m. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.