From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Red Wings–Avalanche brawl
Red Wings–Avalanche brawl
The Red Wings–Avalanche brawl was a large-scale on-ice Seeing what McCarty was doing to Lemieux,
melee that occurred March 26, 1997, at Joe Louis Are- Avalanche goaltender Patrick Roy skated out of his net to
na in Detroit, Michigan, United States, between two Na- defend his teammate, but was intercepted by Red Wing
tional Hockey League rivals, the Detroit Red Wings and forward Brendan Shanahan, who was skating at full
the Colorado Avalanche. The brawl, alternatively called speed, with an open ice body check, sending him sprawl-
Wednesday,
Bloody Wednesday Fight Night at the Joe and Brawl in ing momentarily into Avalanche defenseman Adam
Hockeytown [1] stemmed from a previous on-ice incident
Hockeytown, Foote. While Shanahan and Foote tangled, Wings goalie
between the two teams during the 1996 Western Confer- Mike Vernon went out to center ice to try and grab Foote
ence Finals. off of Shanahan. Roy saw this going on and got Vernon’s
attention by attacking him from behind, which ended
Previous incident up escalating to a fight when Vernon and Roy dropped
their masks, gloves, and blockers. The scrum between
In Game 6 of the 1996 Western Conference Finals, Larionov and Forsberg ended with the oft-injured Fors-
Avalanche right winger Claude Lemieux checked Red berg aggravating an injury. As a result of the third brawl
Wings center Kris Draper from behind, driving Draper’s of the first period, Forsberg and Larionov each received
face into the boards. matching minor penalites for roughing; Roy and Vernon
The hit sent Draper out of the game and into the hos- were each assessed minor penalties for roughing Shana-
pital with a broken jaw, shattered cheek and orbital bone, han and Foote, respectively, and major penalties for
which required reconstructive surgery involving his jaw fighting each other, and McCarty received a double-mi-
being wired shut and numerous stitches. The Avalanche nor for roughing Lemieux, giving Colorado a power play.
would go on to defeat the Red Wings in six games, even- Forsberg aggravated an injury in scrum with Larionov
tually winning the Stanley Cup. After the traditional and would not return, and the McCarty/Lemieux inci-
handshakes that take place after a playoff series, former dent left patches of blood on the ice that were visible be-
Red Wing winger Dino Ciccarelli said of Lemieux, "I can’t fore the ice was resurfaced by the Zamboni; blood also
believe I shook the guy’s freaking hand. That just pisses ended up on the boards near the Red Wings bench. There
me right off."[2] was even more blood during this brawl, when blood
started to gush out from Roy’s forehead from the punch-
The brawls es he received by Vernon.
Fifteen seconds after the Roy/Vernon fight,
In the next regular season, although the two teams had Avalanche winger Adam Deadmarsh and Red Wing de-
played each other three times without incident, this fenceman Vladimir Konstantinov would drop the gloves
fourth meeting on the night of March 26 was different, in another fight for the final fight in the first period.
with nine fights in the game. As tensions mounted early There would be five more fights (and four stoppages)
in the first period, defencemen Brent Severyn in the second period: a fight between Shanahan and
(Avalanche) and Jamie Pushor (Red Wings) fought at 4:45 Foote four seconds into the second period, simultaneous
of the first period, followed by a fight between forwards fights between Avalanche winger Mike Keane and Red
Kirk Maltby (Red Wings) and René Corbet (Avalanche) at Wing winger Tomas Holmstrom, which occurred for the
10:14. most part on the ice and between Severyn and Red Wing
The major melee ensued at the 18:22 mark, leading defenceman Aaron Ward 3:34 in (Severyn and Ward were
to the third fight. Shortly after a collision between Red ejected for a secondary fight), McCarty and Deadmarsh
Wing center Igor Larionov and Avalanche forward Peter at 7:24 (McCarty also received a roughing), and between
Forsberg, Wings enforcer Darren McCarty seized the Pushor and Avalanche defenceman Uwe Krupp at 11:26.
chance to avenge his Grind Line teammate by escaping a When the third period ended, the score was tied 5–5.
linesman’s grasp and hitting Lemieux with a right hook Incidentally, it was McCarty who scored the winner
from the side. McCarty laid many blows on Lemieux, who against Roy in overtime, assisted by Shanahan and Lari-
fell to the ice and covered his head (labeled "turtling" onov.
in hockey terminology); McCarty managed to land a few
more punches, drag Lemieux to the boards, and knee him
in the head before the two were separated by officials.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Red Wings–Avalanche brawl
Aftermath The game and brawl is considered a defining moment
in modern Red Wings history. However, as players began
Mike Vernon, who won his 300th career game, believed to leave each team through free agency, trades, or retire-
the brawl-filled game "brought the Red Wings together" ments, the rivalry began to die down.
in time for the playoffs.[3] Colorado head coach Marc A game between the Red Wings and Avalanche on
Crawford, meanwhile, wondered why McCarty did not March 23, 2002 broke into a brawl (much smaller than
receive a game misconduct for his largely one-sided insti- the previous two) when Kirk Maltby came into Patrick
gation and subsequent fight with Lemieux (McCarty re- Roy’s net and Roy took exception. The brawl continued
ceived a double-minor for roughing for that incident, and when Red Wing goalie Dominik Hašek skated down the
also received a fighting major later in the game). Sub- length of the ice to confront Roy but tripped on a discard-
sequently, Avalanche right winger Mike Keane criticized ed stick, causing him to crash into and knock over Roy.
Draper for having McCarty fight on his behalf.[3] Infuriated, Roy threw off his gloves and mask to fight as
A similar free-for-all took place on May 19, during Hasek did the same, but the two were restrained by the
Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals at Joe Louis officials, thus preventing Roy from fighting a third Red
Arena, when during a penalty-filled game, Crawford was Wing goalie since 1997.
seen screaming obscenities at Red Wings head coach
Scotty Bowman across the glass separating the two
benches. Bowman then told Crawford that he knew
Box score
Crawford’s father before he did and he wouldn’t appre- • Avalanche-Red Wings brawl box score at USA Today.
ciate the way he was acting. The Wings would win that
game 6-0. Crawford was fined $10,000 for the tirade.[4]
The next year during a game on November 11, 1997
See also
between the two teams, McCarty and Lemieux began to • Fighting in ice hockey
throw punches seconds after the opening faceoff, much
to the delight of the Joe Louis Arena crowd. On April
1, 1998, Joe Louis Arena was the site of another Avs-
References
Wings brawl. This time Patrick Roy challenged and then [1] The Brawl
squared off with Chris Osgood at center ice. The referees [2] Broadway’s golden punk
called more severe penalties this time, as Roy and Osgood [3] ^ National Hockey League - Avalanche vs. Red
both received minor, major, misconduct, and game mis- Wings
conduct penalties. The two teams combined for 46 penal- [4] Crawford Fined $10,000 for Hostilities in Game 4
ties totaling 228 minutes.[5] The Wings ultimately won [5] CNN/SI - Hockey - NHL Recap (Colorado-Detroit) -
the game 2–0, and would go on to win the second of their April 2, 1998
consecutive Stanley Cups.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/in-
dex.php?title=Red_Wings%E2%80%93Avalanche_brawl&oldid=461618317"
Categories:
• 1997 in ice hockey
• National Hockey League brawls
• Colorado Avalanche
• Detroit Red Wings
• National Hockey League rivalries
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