It’s a little tough to fight in hockey when every skater is wearing a full cage, but the women’s national teams from the United States and Canada tried their best over the weekend.
In the first of six exhibition meetings between the two rivals ahead of February’s Sochi Olympics on Saturday, a hit on Canada goalie Shannon Szabados late in the third period sparked a full-on line brawl Saturday in Burlington, Vt. University of North Dakota product Jocelyne Lamoureux delivered the blow, prompting ex-University of New Hampshire Wildcat Courtney Birchard to accost her in the corner.
Fighting in hockey is a rare sight on the international stage (especially in the women’s game), but according to Team Canada captain Hayley Wickenheiser, this isn’t the first dustup the two world powers have been involved in.
“We had a similar scrap in 2010, so I guess we have one every Olympic cycle to get it out of our system,” Wickenheiser told reporters after the game, via Canoe.ca.
“It was kind of fun to see, and it brought a lot of intensity to another dog fight with these guys. There are few, if any, blowouts in this series.”
Canada, the defending Olympic champion, took home a 3-2 win in Game 1.
Check out the brawl in the video below, with a stick tap to The Big Lead:
Some of the highlights:
0:09 — One of the announcers repeatedly says "Oh yeah!" as the brawl begins.
0:35 — A true logistical challenge of brawling with cages over your face becomes all too apparent.
0:44 — US goalie Brianne McLaughlin is not impressed.
0:55 — The camera operator loses focus.
1:03 — Everyone is pretty well spent.
