It was going to take something remarkable to trump the 5th annual Sioux Nation Pet Clinic Wiener Dog Races during the Sioux City Musketeers' game at the Sioux Falls Stampede on Saturday night.
Apologies to Benny, the big "wiener" of the race — because, you see, he's not only a wiener dog but also the winner of the race — but this spirited line brawl hit the trifecta of spirited action, hyper announcing and a rather awesome goalie fight at center ice:
Here's the box score. So how did the brawl break down?
From Jim Olander of the Stampede, after their 5-2 loss:
The Stampede set a franchise record for most penalty minutes in a game with 102 and a record for most combined penalty minutes of 208, all in front of a crowd of 4,511 at the Arena. The loss dropped the Stampede to 13-25-3 while Sioux City improved to 19-23-1 on the season.
A line brawl during the second period saw Joseph Lordo, Ed McGovern, Justin Selman, Kyle Rankin and Dan Carlson dropped the gloves with five Sioux City players and even goaltender Jay Williams got into the action when he went at it with Sioux City netminder Matt Skoff at the 7:16 mark of the second period. It all happened after the Musketeers took a 3-2 lead just seconds later on a goal from Maxim Gaudreault. Joseph Lordo was checked from behind moments earlier and tried to get Josh Erickson to drop the gloves and it eventually led to the whole line dropping the gloves and squaring off.
A word about that goalie fight: OMG. You have to love Jay Williams trying to find a moment to escape the referee's gaze long enough to race out to center ice for the bout. But, on second thought, maybe it was better to stay in his own crease, seeing how Skoff clocked him. One of the better goalie fights we've seen recently.