On Saturday night the Providence Bruins were unable to close out their Calder Cup AHL playoff series against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins as they lost 4-0 and the Penguins forced a game six. The Bruins refused to just take the loss quietly though and the brawl that ensued certainly set the stage for an interesting game six on Monday.
The Bruins and Penguins combined for 117 penalty minutes with the majority coming from Bruins forward Graham Mink, who received a match penalty for attempting to injure Penguins goalie Brad Theissen. Mink went after Theissen after Theissen had frozen the puck and started throwing punches at him for no reason as Theissen laid there and tried to protect himself. The referee did a good job to dive on top of Mink to try and break the two up, since Mink was just wailing on Theissen. According to AHL rules, Mink will be fined $200 and the penalty will be reviewed by the league for supplemental discipline.
Two minutes later after Penguins forward Paul Thompson scored to make it 4-0, Bruins goalie Niklas Svedberg took exception and slashed Thompson, setting off another series of scrums.
In an interview after the game, Theissen was asked about the incident and he seemed relatively calm about it.
“I didn’t say anything or do anything. It kind of happened. I’m not sure what provoked it,” Thiessen said. “Whatever they want to do, my job is still to stop the puck.”
The box score from the two scrums is pretty impressive too.
It’s not often that you see a brawl in the playoffs, no matter what league it is.
