1:22It started with another illegal hockey hit in the back, and ended in a brawl Thursday night in southeastern Minnesota that prompted the unusual ejection of 10 players from a game less than a week after a Twin Cities high school student was paralyzed from a similar check.
The mayhem during a boys' game between host Winona and Owatonna started when a Winona player was hit in the back and into the boards behind the Owatonna net late in the second period.
Ryan Grant "went into the boards pretty awkwardly," Eric Lear, the color commentator calling the contest for HBC-TV in Winona, said Friday morning. "And after that, Grant went after" Matt Ritter, the Owatonna player who checked him from behind.
"They were both on the ice at that point, rolling over and Grant tackled him," Lear said. "Everyone [excepted for the goalies] just skated into a mob behind the net. Everyone got into it" for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.
Winona coach Fran McDevitt said he has no doubt that his player's retaliatory outburst was a direct consequence of the devastating hit last Friday on sophomore Jack Jablonski of Benilde-St. Margaret's in a junior varsity game against Wayzata.
"Being hit in the back [just as Jablonski was] caused that reaction by Ryan," said McDevitt, whose team lost the game 4-3. "He's too good a kid to react that way. Two weeks ago, our guys don't react that way."
McDevitt said the hit "square in the back" was neither malicious nor dirty, "but it was definitely dangerous," given that Grant was facing the boards.
Just as in Jablonski's situation, Grant was hit twice, with the second and harder check sending him into the boards while he was off balance from the first hit.
