Red Wings–Avalanche brawl

The Brawl in Hockeytown was a mass brawl on 26 March 1997 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan, also known as Hockeytown, between two rivals the Hockey League National Hockey League, the Detroit Red Wings and the Colorado Avalanche. Cause of the brawl was an incident during the final series in 1996 the Western Conference.

The cause

In the sixth game of the final series in 1996 the Western Conference was Kris Draper, Center of the Detroit Red Wings, checked by the right winger Claude Lemieux of the Colorado Avalanche from behind against the gang. Draper wore it breaks the nose, the lower jaw and cheekbone and a concussion. Colorado won the game and moved into the Stanley Cup Finals, where they were also victorious.

The brawl

The teams met in the 1996/97 season on each other three times, without that there was a particular incident. But in the fourth game of the regular season between the two teams did the mass brawl. Saw Shortly after a collision between Detroit's Igor Larionov and Colorado's Peter Forsberg Darren McCarty, who played in a row with Kris Draper, the chance to avenge his comrades and struck repeatedly on a Claude Lemieux. Colorado goalkeeper Patrick Roy skated to the center line to defend his teammates when he was vice checked by Red Wings striker Brendan Shanahan. While Avalanche defenseman Adam Foote docked with Shanahan, Mike Vernon Detroit's goalkeeper came out of the gate and asked Roy to battle. Vernon decided the battle for himself and left the ice without major damage. Patrick Roy, however, was bleeding from the head.

After another brawl and the associated penalties the game has continued, and it was at 60 minutes 5:5. The winning goal in extra time scored Darren McCarty.

Reactions

Mike Vernon, of his 300th win in his career celebrated on that day, said that this game has welded together the team for the playoffs. Colorado coach Marc Crawford wondered why Darren McCarty was not punished harder and avalanche attacker Mike Keane criticized that Kris Draper has not intervened even in the fight, but others would have fought for him. Scotty Bowman, coach of the Red Wings, only said that it would never have come this far if Lemieux had apologized.

Penalties

Overall, there were during the match two game Misconduct, 18 major penalties for fighting, a double minor penalty, as well as 17 small penalties. Without the Game Misconduct penalties in the game, there were 128 penalty minutes.

Game Misconduct

Detroit Red Wings: Aaron Ward Colorado Avalanche: Brent Severyn

Major penalty (5 minutes)

Detroit Red Wings: Jamie Pushor (x2), Kirk Maltby, Mike Vernon, Vladimir Konstantinov, Brendan Shanahan, Aaron Ward, Tomas Holmstrom, Darren McCarty Colorado Avalanche: Brent Severyn (x2), Rene Corbet, Patrick Roy, Adam Dead Marsh (x2), Adam Foote, Mike Keane, Uwe Krupp

Double minor penalty (4 minutes)

Detroit Red Wings: Darren McCarty

Minor penalty (2 minutes)

Detroit Red Wings: Kris Draper, Igor Larionov, Mike Vernon, Martin Lapointe, Darren McCarty, Kirk Maltby, Jamie Pushor Colorado Avalanche: Scott Young ( x2), Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Adam Dead Marsh (x2 ), Patrick Roy, Sandis Ozoliòš (x3)