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Epic college hockey fight sends referee tumbling to the ice

Colton Pankiw
Colton Pankiw
|
Feb 24 2024, 6:52 pm
Epic college hockey fight sends referee tumbling to the ice

It isn’t very often that we see staged fights take place in hockey these days, but an epic one got underway last night between Arizona State and Alaska Fairbanks.

Late in the third period, Arizona State’s Tucker Ness and Alaska Fairbanks’ Dawson Bruneski were barking back and forth at each other in the penalty box and had clearly made up their minds that they were fighting. Despite their penalties not yet having ended, however, both players chose to leave the box during a stoppage in play and engaged at centre ice for what was one of the better hockey fights we have seen in some time.

Despite both Ness and Bruneski going down to the ice early, they weren’t finished despite having the referee jump in. That resulted in the ref attempting to hold on for dear life before eventually being flung off and tumbling down to the ice himself.

This game, which ended in a 3-1 victory for Alaska, was intense right from the get-go. There wound up being a combined 247 penalty minutes between the two teams, and after the fight seen above, the referees chose to end the game with 11 seconds remaining.

Hockey fans who enjoy these types of games are in luck, as these two teams are set to face off against each other again tonight at the Carlson Center. Both Bruneski and Ness are expected to be unavailable and are likely to face suspensions, given that fighting is not allowed at the collegiate level.

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