It's not exactly rare to see fans get into with players who are in the penalty box during an NHL game. Not in the Tie Domi sense, but in the verbal abuse sense. It is rare, however, to see a situation get so intense that it delays the game, which is what happened in Anaheim on Sunday night.
In the third period of their 7-4 loss to the Anaheim Ducks, there were three Columbus Blue Jackets seated in the penalty box: Derek MacKenzie and Derek Dorsett serving 10-minute misconducts, and Jared Boll, fresh off a pounding of Sheldon Brookbank and serving a 5-minute major.
With 15:33 left in the third, play was halted for about five minutes as arena security sorted out an incident between the players and some fans near the box.
From Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch:
Four fans were escorted out of the building — the last requiring a police presence — after getting into a skirmish with the Blue Jackets' Jared Boll and Dorsett as they sat in the penalty box.
No word how intense the "skirmish" became. The Fox Sports Net Ohio feed showed a male fan in a hooded sweatshirt being identified by security personnel and off-ice officials, and eventually escorted up the stairs (giving a high-five to another fan before his departure).
By the 12:30 mark, uniformed police officers made their way down to the seats near the Blue Jackets penalty box and escorted an additional fan away.
After the game, Boll denied playing a role in any instigating, telling Portzline "[MacKenzie] wanted a drink, so I squirted some in his direction." (Well that was a very Jared Boll response.)
If you've got more information on how things went down during this fracas, email us at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com.