Saturday night in suburban Denver, the Colorado Eagles soundly defeated the Florida Everblades (affiliate of Carolina and AHL Charlotte) 5-1.
The most exciting part wasn’t the goals scored, but rather a line brawl and goalie fight that racked up 106 penalty minutes with 19 seconds left.
It all began in the Florida zone when former NHL player Darryl Bootland (28 games with Detroit in 2003-04 and 2006-07; four games with NY Islanders in 2007-08) got in a scuffle with Everblades goalie Anthony Peters. Peters’ teammates Jordan Ciccarello and Matt Stanisz came to his aid and double teamed Bootland. Players from both teams joined the scrum and just after players were separated Bootland tried to take a swing at Peters.
This set things off again when players from both teams started dropping the gloves and squaring off individually. The fans got on their feet if they weren’t already when Peters skated down ice to drop the gloves with Eagles netminder Kris Lazaruk who was minding his own business in the crease. The goalies exchanged blows with their right arm until Peters got Lazaruk on the ice and were separated by the linesman.
Th highlight of the game is above, with the fight beginning at 2:30.
That wasn’t the only fight of the final minute, as 46 more penalty minutes was handed out after an alternation 11 seconds after the big one.
In the standings, Florida currently leads the South division with 28 points while Colorado sits third in the West division with 16 points.
Just an FYI….Loveland/Fort Collins is not suburban Denver. Over an hour up the road. You might be confused with Boulder.