Shockers Rattled by Referee's

Final Score
Shockers 5
FW 5

We all could have put money down on the table and said that this game would be a heated battle of the titans but what would have been the biggest payoff would have been who would have gambled on this game being the first ever tie game in NABHL history?

Well the fact the game ended in a deadlock is not so much the big deal but it is rather how the game ended that way.

"Fighting," said captain, Alain Godard, in a single word.

The game started off in a favorable start for the FW squad but avoiding any goals to be allowed in that wake up period, Giancarlo Capaz stood tall and kept things together for the Shockers. About midway through the opening frame, the Shockers powerplay unit hit the floor and went to work constantly chipping away at the old block until the right dose of brown rocket was added in the mix and Jeff Jasmin opened up the scoring with a blast from the past. This was Jasmin's first of the season, Donald Toohey and Chris Di Sensi picking up the helpers.

However, penalty trouble would rig the charge for FW's attack and they would reply within two minutes after Jasmin's goal to knot the game at 1.

Second period, hosted a series of events. First off, three back to back goals by the Shockers. Steve Towell with two and Ben Ducharme following up with one of his own. But just 30 seconds after Ducharme's goal, FW plotted the revenge and scored two quick ones.

Late in the second, while FW performed a line change, FW's, Steve Clement speared Toohey and then ran and hid behind his bench which sparked a full-blown tussle. Toohey was ejected from the game and received a five game suspension (1 for slashing to injure, 1 for fighting, 1 for repeated offense, and 2 for trash talking and threats). However, the officals "did not see anything" that Clement did and did not feel that he meritted anymore than a 2 minute penalty.

While short-handed Chris Diabo still managed to score to put it in the faces of FW.

The third period started up with FW still on the powerplay and notched a quick two goals to knot it all up at 5-a-side. Suddenly, during a race for the ball, an FW defensemen crossed paths with Chris Diabo and in turn received a very questionable bump from behind. The defensemen, unable to run properly was semi-crouched and hit his head into the boards. He was okay and shook it off but Diabo was tossed from the game and was given 3 games suspension (2 for hitting from behind and 1 for second offence). The Shockers became frustrated with the officiating and showed in their game play as they were clearly not happy with FW being remotely around their net. A scuffle built up in front of the Shockers net midway through the period where, again, Clement instigated a brawl by cross-checking Steve Diabo in the face and then running away. Nothing was seen by the referees again and in result the game was called due to too much fighting and more suspensions were given out. Steve Towell got two games and Chris Di Sensi got one game on the Shockers side and Steve Clement got a very sad two games along with Brad Cohen would got a single game suspension.

After the game, even though FW's goaltender, Jonathan Epstein, was practically was under the desk of the league officials to have the entire Shockers' club tossed from the league, unfortunately for him the team will stay in the NABHL but he did get his wishes to have several players from the Shockers suspended with minimal damage to his line-up. Good Job Epstein! According to the NABHL, they met on the issues and decided on the final outcomes yet no one could confirm whether they did or not. To make matters worse is the conflict of interest that is occurring throughout the league. The league commissioner, who happened to be the referee that night is also a player on the Huskies, a team that is in competition against the Shockers.

NABHL has not conformed to most league's standards in acquiring certified referees but there are two referees who do not play for other teams and the games have always been referee'd equal. However, they were not present for this game in question.

In the end, the Shockers will have to make due with the following:

Donald Toohey will miss the games against Kryptonite, Ligers, Baton Rouge, Huskies, plus game one of the playoffs.

Chris Diabo will miss the games against Kryptonite, Ligers, and Baton Rouge.

Steve Towell will miss the games against Kryptonite and Ligers.

Chris Di Sensi will miss the game against Kryptonite.

"We're not in bad shape. Yeah, we're missing some big guns out there but we'll manage until our full line-up is back," commented Andrew Stevens.

Next game is on Monday, May 11 @ 9:30pm against Kryptonite.