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Brandon Prust and four of his London Nationals players have been suspended for a chaotic brawl at the end of a 6-5 road loss in Port Colborne.
The ex-NHLer-turned-coach was handed an automatic three-game ban along with Sailors counterpart Kevin Rosebrugh simply because the benches weren’t held after the buzzer, officials with the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League said on Wednesday.
“That obviously didn’t play out too well in the whole scenario,” GOJHL commissioner Craig Spada said of the weekend brawl.
London’s Philip Marcarian, Luke McSorley and William Muszynski were assessed three games apiece for fighting after the buzzer with Port Colborne’s Ian Krakowiak, Jake Salvatore and Andrew Kennedy. Muszynski also faces more discipline from an attempt to injure incident during the melee.
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Nationals defenceman Aydan Doyle, who played part of last season with Port Colborne, was called to the carpet for an explanation on why he skated over to confront his old Sailors teammate PJ Alexander. He was given a suspension – indefinite as of Wednesday – for his involvement in the ruckus.
The GOJHL said the whole thing could have been avoided if both teams simply headed to their dressing rooms.
“When the game is over, it’s over,” Spada said. “We don’t want this for our league. The biggest thing we’ve been promoting is player safety. We spent a lot of money to get there, almost $100,000 on full paramedic equipment in every building and made every team responsible for having a first responder on the bench.
“Therefore, we don’t want these incidents escalating at the end of games or multiple fighting situations. We want players on the ice and coaches behind the benches.”
Prust and the London players were set to miss Wednesday’s home game against Elmira. The new coach, who guided the Nationals to an impressive 9-3-2-1 start in his first 15 games, will be eligible to return Friday, Nov. 15 on the road against the defending Sutherland Cup champion Listowel Cyclones.
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