On Saturday night, the Fort Wayne Komets defeated the Evansville IceMen, 7-4, in a rather spirited CHL affair — the last 24 seconds featured six fighting majors.
One fight that didn't happen: Jesse Bennefield of the Komets vs. Nick Schneider, despite Bennefield's best efforts. "Best efforts" being a euphemism for "repeatedly slapping him in the face to instigate a fight."
Those are the slaps, played on a Jumbotron loop to the appreciative crowd at the game. You can see much better video of this instant classic on The Journal Gazette's Ice Chips blog.
From Justin Cohn of the Gazette:
"He didn't want to fight so I called him a wuss and he still didn't want to fight," Bennnefield said. "I can't start sucker-punching him, so I thought I would give him a couple slaps, hopefully piss him off. … I had to let him know he doesn't pull nothing in our barn."
Schneider didn't take the bait, and Bennnefield was given a roughing call. Or, in this case, a "you brute! you brute!" call.
You know, in a game that features such tactics as spitting and biting to instigate fights, there's just something quaint about implementing Three Stooges-style antics instead.