Atmosphere was so tense Rychel wanted police called
LONDON It will be interesting to see if the post-game tirade on officials Sunday hurts the Windsor Spitfires in the near future.
No doubt the team will face a fine, but overage forward Jeremiah Addison’s cross-checking major penalty and game misconduct in Sunday’s 5-2 loss to the London Knights will be reviewed by the league.
Addison, the overtime hero in Friday’s victory, tried to come to the defence of teammate Julius Nattinen in the second period of Sunday’s game. Nattinen was being called for a high-sticking penalty and London’s Max Jones came in and slashed Nattinen. Addison raced to his teammate’s defence.
“I came in with my stick, but slipped and he kicked me,” Addison said of Jones.
Addison’s stick snapped on the play and he was given a major penalty and game misconduct, which will be reviewed before Game 3 on Tuesday.
“These (hockey) sticks break in the blink of an eye,” Spitfires head coach Rocky Thompson said. “Our guy fell down. He cross-checked, but these sticks break so easily that when he made contact with Jones he’s the one who fell down and we get a five-minute penalty for a situation like that.
“It’s another ridiculous call. We should have got a (minor) penalty without a doubt.”
Game 3 is Tuesday at the WFCU Centre.
OFFICE WILL BE BUSY WATCHING VIDEO
While the league will review Addison’s penalty, Thompson also plans to send in video clips to the league from other plays he felt were missed by the officials in Sunday’s game.
“We’ll send clips in and hopefully it gets back to the referees,” Thompson said. “Mikey (DiPietro, Spits goalie) was tomahawked by Jones. It was the most vicious thing in the game and there was no call.
“No call on (a) slew foot, not a single hooking or holding penalty called against them, but every (London) dive was rewarded.”
MORE PROBLEMS AFTER THE GAME
Spitfires general manager Warren Rychel was looking for the police after an alleged post-game incident outside the Windsor dressing room at Budweiser Gardens.
The Spitfires claim members of the ice-cleaning crew were taunting and making comments to the club’s players as the team came off the ice after the game.
However, despite repeated requests by Rychel to a rink official to call police to deal with the situation, no one came to the rink.
The club plans to pass that information along to the league as well.