Yale Fight

[sprig]

Anyone sort out what happened here, following what appeared to be a cheap shot and bad injury to Jones (neither of which was the case).

Was Spiewak actually the first in? Who dropped the gloves, just McMahon and Higgins. Seemed that one fight and a lot of dancing resulted in way too many DQ's.

Not the time to lose players to suspensions. Losing half of the best Sioux forward PK tandem (Spiewak, Notermann) is not a good thing heading to SCSU.

Odd that with the big, physical defense, probably the least physical, Fuher, gets the only defense DQ.

And all this happens with Prpich in a suit

[PCM]

The way Hennessy decscribed it, McMahon was the one who originally went after Higgins. He seemed to think that McMahon and possibly Ryan Hale were the only two Sioux players who really deserved game DQs. Spiewak going after someone doesn't seem characteristic of him.

[dagies]

I was really surprised to hear Spiewak get a DQ, like you say, PCM. From all accounts Higgins didn't do anything dirty but if Spie got involved to this extent I do believe he thought he saw something that needed to be "addressed". It's not like him to go off half-cocked.

After seeing McMahon dismember that guy from UMD last year I can only imagine he was looking for a good excuse to go again.

[jeffj]

Had a friend at the game who saw the situation unfold.

Matt was moving up the boards going shoulder to shoulder with Higgins. They were both very low (going for leverage) against each other. Matt push the puck up, and then relaxed. Then Higgins smashed his helmet up against the boards with his stick, which caused his helmet to come off. Matt then took a knee to the head.

I don't have any detail on who was in first on the brawl. However, as a parent, I am glad they jumped in.

Matt never lost conciousness, but was clearly dazed.

He checked out okay last night when they got back to Grand Forks.

[dagies]

jeffj, that's great to hear about Matt. Matt will be an important player for the Sioux this year.

[sprig]

Good to hear Matt came out of that OK. Know from listening to Hennesey it looked like a bad injury when it happened.

Not surprised that there was more to the event than depicted in the Herald by an eastern writer. Yale's Higgins was hardly an innocent party to the whole thing if it started with a high stick to the head.

Good to hear the guys sticking up for teammates. Still think the ref. got carried away with the number of DQ's; probably one from each team would have been a more reasonable call.

[siouxpuckie]

http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=20551

Here was the Yale school paper had to say about the fight. Very similar to what was in the GF Herald.

[fightonsioux]

Of course one thing they neglected to print in the Yale Daily News was the fact that Josh Siembida was spit on by one of the Yale players when he went down on the ice.

And if you were listening to Hennessey on the radio the first guy to start swearing at Tim, not the second guy who wanted to take him outside, but the first one, just happens to be the Athletic Director at Yale. Hard to believe an Ivy League Athletic Director would do something like that.

McMahon was the first one to go after Higgins. He was standing up for his player that was laying on the ice without a helmet and twitching. It may not have been an intentional dirty hit by Higgins (even though the Yale paper quoted players saying there were going to do just that) but McMahon didn't have the option of seeing the tape before responding to what looked like a dirty hit.

In the past out players have taken a beating, especially goalies, without standing up for ourselve. It's nice to see them standing up for each other.

[The Sicatoka]

You know, if you, as a player, are gonna "throw 'em" with someone:

(a) make sure it's for a solid reason, and

(b) make sure you can use the "Canady quote" (Yeah, but you should see him!) afterwards.

[Goon]

And if you were listening to Hennessey on the radio the first guy to start swearing at Tim, not the second guy who wanted to take him outside, but the first one, just happens to be the Athletic Director at Yale. Hard to believe an Ivy League Athletic Director would do something like that.

I heard that on the Radio too, Tim was trying to announce the game and was sparing with the people in the stand to boot. I guess I expect more from an ivy league school representative. Yesh, time for the Ivy administrators to grow up eh?

I like to see the men sticking up for each other. It show character.

[sprig]

Suspensions of Speiwak and Fuher are being appealed, as well as, I'd guess, two of the Yale players that didn't throw punches:

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/s...rts/4445489.htm

Speez, Heard anything on this topic yet this week?

[Speez]

Just heard the suspensions were not overturned, but both players along with Ryan are going to St. Cloud.

At least the local paper finally got the story right. You would think they would check the facts before copying the east coast story that was printed on Sunday.

[HKNTSMN]

Are they going to play short on Friday and play all three on Saturday night. I hope so. I hope we can win in St. Cloud. It is hard for me to believe we should lose to the Huskies.

Speez are you coming up?

[fightonsioux]

Sorry, I didn't thoroughly check my facts either. It was apparently the Princeton paper that had the stuff in about running all over the Sioux because they are so small. But I'm assuming they were still ticked off about it on Saturday.

It sounds like Dean is going to take Hale, Spiewak and Fuhr. He is planning on playing only 5 defensemen on Friday. Marvin will probably be seeing forward time on Friday. He can play either position so that helps.

I tried to let my voice be heard by telling the sports editor that I'd rather there was nothing but box scores in the paper than the embarrasing story that ran Sunday. Unfortunately it's hard for the sports department to double check info. There isn't really anyone they can call when Virg doesn't go to away games. And unfortunately they are so busy with other sports going on (like there is another sport. Peleaze!) they don't have time to listen to the game on the radio. The only games Virg usually doesn't go to are the ones in Alaska because of the time difference and non-conference far away games like Princeton and Yale.

[siouxpuckie]

Can someone please tell me what the facts from the fight are - or at least what was wrong with the recount of the action in the GF Herald? And where did all this new information sprout from? Is there documentation from these new accounts? I have read three articles from three different authors (GF Herald, USCHO and Yale Daily News) that all give essentially the same account of how the events unfolded. I gess I'm just looking for something concrete to disprove everything I've read from reporters who were actually at the game, which include quotes from both Yale and North Dakota personell.

[PCM]

Maybe somone else who listened to the game on the radio can chime in, but as I remember it, Tim Hennessy initially thought Higgins had delivered a dirty hit on Jones.

Toward the end of the game, he seemed to soften his position and say that he didn't think Higgins had done anything to intentionally hurt Jones. He mentioned that he thought it looked bad because Jones had started to fall just as Higgins was checking him.

In the post-game interview with Dave Hakstol, Hennessy said how he thought it happened, but Hakstol didn't seem to buy it. He said that Jones had been elbowed in the head. That left me in limbo about the situation.

The story in the Sunday Grand Forks Herald largely supported Hennessy's version of events. The writer gave the impression that the video replay clearly showed that the incident was primarily caused by Jones falling.

One thing I will add is that when I interview players and coaches after Sioux games, I'm always extremely impressed at how well they can recall the smallest detail of something that happened on the ice. Video replays don't always show the best angle or provide a sharp image. Therefore, just because someone says the video proves something, doesn't necessarily mean that it does.

[sprig]

PCM,

You have the radio broadcast version right on. Some posters, who were at the game, said Higgins finished his check (possibly after Jones fell?). Details are sketchy to say the least.

Hennesey got pretty caught up in the verbal battle with the Yale fans over the radio, so the details of what occurred before the fight were not discussed much at the time.