You have to see this to believe it. There have been plenty of insane tirades by coaches and managers over the years, but nothing like this has ever been done before. Assistant coach Chris Clark of the Wenatchee Wild in the NAHL took it up another notch when he went to mock the referees. Clark was acting as head coach for the rest of the game because their Head Coach Bliss Littler and another assistant, Noah Nelson, had already been ejected from the game.
The Wenatchee World recaps what happened leading up to the incident:
Clark paced around the rink like a blind man tapping his stick on the ice and got tossed from the game. At that point, the Wild (28-7-4 overall) had given up their second goal of the game to the Brown Bears while shorthanded.
The home team was understandably frustrated, but became considerably more upset after the bench received a misconduct immediately after scoring a game-tying goal with 11 minutes in the final period.
“I don’t know what he (the referee) could have heard from center ice with 3,500 screaming,” Clark said.
The Wild were shorthanded following the game-tying goal and its penalty kill unit gave up its second goal of the night about two minutes afterward to fall behind 2-1.
At that point, Clark decided he’d had enough.
While the referees obviously did not appreciate the fans loved it:
Chris Clark got a resounding round of applause after leaving the Wenatchee locker room and returning to Town Toyota Center’s main hallway.
After the incident though, things only escalated. Several fights broke out between the two teams after the game ended and while the referees were trying to restore order fans started to throw beverages onto the ice.
The Team President of the Wenatchee Wild had to finish the game as the coach, and there ended up being a total of 109 penalty minutes in the game. The NAHL is a Tier II Junior Hockey league in the United States, and while this league doesn’t get much press, this incident certainly will. This was one of the most wild and creative meltdowns in recent memory and will certainly find its way onto the different media outlets.
