What goes into the making of an all-out hockey brawl?

While some might object to an all-out line brawl, for two teams in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League that’s just good old-fashioned hockey.
 
At least that’s how Travis Rideout, president of the Flin Flon Minor Hockey Association, is describing a huge fight between the Flin Flon Bombers and the Melville Millionaires.
 
“Great night of old school hockey,” he tweeted a few days after the game, which took place on Feb. 6 at the Whitney Forum in Flin Flon, Man.

The scraps were caught on camera and eventually featured on TSN’s BarDown.com. The video has since accumulated more than 40,000 views on YouTube.
 
CBC News spoke with some of those closest to the action to find out exactly what led to this epic throw-down.

Long-standing rivalry

Tyler Bell, a defenceman with the Bombers who participated in the fight, said there is a long-standing rivalry between Flin Flon and Melville.
 
“We don’t like each other very much,” Bell said with a laugh.
 
Bombers head coach Mike Reagan said this stretches back to the ’92-’93 season, when the two teams faced off in a championship game.
 
“It places added incentive on each game. It was just an intense hockey game, very physical,” Reagan said.

“I think that's what led to everything happening.”

Rowdy crowd

Rideout said that another contributing factor was the mood in the stands. Approximately 1,600 fans were in attendance at an arena that seats approximately 2,000, which he said is “a pretty good turnout for hockey in the small communities.”

He explained that it was a special event game called Hockey Night in Flin Flon, when a sponsor pays for everyone’s ticket.

Players could feel the energy.

“They just felt it was a totally different atmosphere in the rink that night,” said Rideout. “The electricity was in the air that night.”

All I remember is the guys on the bench were going nuts and pretty excited and the fans were absolutely going insane- Tyler Bell, defenceman on the Flin Flon Bombers

Bell agreed, adding that the energy went both ways. Once the fight broke out, he said fans absolutely ate up the spectacle.

“All I remember is the guys on the bench were going nuts and pretty excited and the fans were absolutely going insane,” Bell said. “Sixteen-hundred fans in the arena with five fights going on — it was pretty loud, for sure.”

Who started it?

Although Rideout remembers one of the Melville players landing a hit behind a net, the actual root cause of the brawl is almost beside the point compared to what happened next.

Bell said he remembers standing near one of the blue lines with a Melville player when the fight erupted. It was late in the second period and the score was 4-1 for the Bombers. The dominoes fell into place.

“We kind of looked at each other and watched the fight going on and I turned to him and said, 'well, we might as well fight to make it a line brawl," Bell said.

Repercussions

Reagan, the Bombers coach, said he was happy to see his team playing with so much raw emotion. He grew up watching hockey in Flin Flon, a town where players such as Bobby Clarke and Reggie Leach had stints prior to joining the Philadelphia Flyers during the Broad Street Bullies days.

"I was fine with it as a coach," Reagan said. "I like the hard-nose style of hockey."

Rideout pointed out that the fight was consensual on all sides.

"You could tell both teams were into it," he said. "It wasn't two-on-one."

However, six players between the two teams received game suspensions.