The reign of tyranny continues for KHL goon squad Vityaz Chekhov.
Already this year, there were the brawls with Metallurg. There was the line brawl with Riga. There was Jeremy Yablonski elbowing Darcy Verot in the head during a fight. There was coach Andrei Nazarov attacking fans with a stick. Hell, go back to the summer, and the Vityaz boys were fighting wedding guests.
Their latest bit of whimsy comes at the expense of Traktor Chelyabinsk, in a KHL game on Saturday. From KHL.ru:
Traktor Chelyabinsk's win over struggling Vityaz was little surprise - but the characteristically aggressive tactics of Vityaz resulted in a brawl in the last minute which saw even the two goaltenders - Traktor's Michael Garnett and the hosts' Matt Dalton - drawn into the melee. Traktor won 5-1, with four goals in the final period. Anton Glinkin got two of them; Anton Burdasov had 1+2.
"Characteristically aggressive" is being kind. Coming up, more from the Violent World of Vityaz Chekhov.
In this clip, Jeremy Yablonski skates up to Alex Riazantsev and sucker punches him; as trainers tend to Riazantsev, a scrum breaks out in the Vityaz zone while Yablonski appears to challenge the opposing goaltender.
This next clip really brings the crazy. Ontario native and Vityaz goalie Matt Dalton skates across the ice to challenge Saskatchewan native Michael Garnett. They jaw for a moment and then proceed to rip each other's masks off for a pretty terrific goalie fight. Meanwhile, Maxim Mamin of Traktor beats the heck out of Alexander Sazonov near the blue line.
Finally, here's Nick Tarnasky of Vityaz chasing around Traktor players, trying to get any of them to engage in a fight. When that tactic doesn't work, he just jumps one instead.
Traktor won the game, 5-1. News of this being a "hockey" match came as a shock to Vityaz.
The final tally: Kip Brennan had 45 penalty minutes; Jeremy Yablonski had 27; Mikhail Chernov had 12; and goalie Matt Dalton had seven. It appears Jon "Nasty" Mirasty did not play. Alas …