ECAC Hockey had a change of heart on Wednesday.
Two days after supporting Union's internal two-game suspension of head coach Rick Bennett for his involvement in Saturday's Mayor's Cup melee, the league added a two game suspension of its own.
The league also assessed a one game suspension to RPI head coach Seth Appert after opting not to discipline him in Monday's round of suspensions.
“ECAC Hockey has continued to review the entire situation that occurred Saturday,” said Commissioner Steve Hagwell. “After additional review and consideration, and discussions with league administrators, additional sanctions have been assessed.
“The league members pride themselves on adhering to the highest level of sportsmanship. Those objectives were not attained Saturday.”
In issued statements, both Union and RPI accepted the league's additional discipline.
Bennett will now miss Union's next four games. Fourth-ranked Union travels to St. Lawrence on Friday and 15th-ranked Clarkson on Saturday before hosting Brown and defending national champion Yale next weekend.
Assistant coach Joe Dumais will serve as acting head coach during Bennett's absence, but Bennett can still conduct practices.
Appert will miss RPI's game at Clarkson on Friday.
As the final horn sounded on Saturday, Union defenseman Mat Bodie cross-checked RPI forward Brock Higgs in the neck. That ignited a series of other incidents among players.
While those were going on, Bennett confronted Appert and the two had to be restrained from each other. Bennett did not explain what spurred him to confront Appert.
The incident was picked up by outlets such as ESPN and USA Today. Both sides later apologized for the incident.
Seven players were previously disciplined and will miss action for their involvement in the Mayor's Cup fracas.
Union will skate without Bodie for both games this weekend. Bodie was given an automatic one game disqualification for facemasking on Saturday before the league added a second game on Monday.
In addition, the Dutchmen will be without forwards Daniel Ciampini and Eli Lichtenwald on Friday. Ciampini was suspended by the league for one game on Monday while Lichtenwald picked up a game disqualification for fighting on Saturday.
Union will skate without Bodie for both games this weekend. Bodie was given an automatic one game disqualification for facemasking on Saturday before the league added a second game on Monday.
In addition, the Dutchmen will be without forwards Daniel Ciampini and Eli Lichtenwald on Friday. Ciampini was suspended by the league for one game on Monday while Lichtenwald picked up a game disqualification for fighting on Saturday.
RPI will be without defenseman Luke Curadi, defenseman Bo Dolan, forward Ryan Haggerty and forward Mike Zalewski on Friday. Curadi and Zalewski received game disqualifications for fighting on Saturday, while Dolan and Haggerty were suspended for a game by the league on Monday.
Follow @UnionHockeyBlog
No comments:
Post a Comment