A minor hockey game in Manitoba turned violent on Sunday, as verbal fights erupted in the stands and one player reportedly shot a puck at referees on purpose, prompting police to be called to the arena.
The hometown Stonewall Blues were battling the Lake Manitoba Eagles in a bantam league championship game when parents say the game began getting rough.
"The further that went on, the more and more their team got upset and aggressive and were starting to physically get involved with the referees," Stuart Brown, a Stonewall parent, told CTV Winnipeg.
Then, in the third period, a Lake Manitoba player took a slap shot at referees while play was stopped with 11 minutes left in the game.
Peter Mandryk, the president of the Stonewall Minor Hockey and Ringette Association, described the player’s conduct as “awful.”
"It shouldn’t happen, it can’t happen," he told CTV Winnipeg. "They're neutral guys, they've got no skin in the game here -- they did a great job."
But one of the coaches for the Lake Manitoba Eagles, Geoffrey Edwards, doesn’t see it that way.
"They (referees) were making racial remarks, swearing at them. You don't swear at children. You don't push children," he told CTV Winnipeg.
Edwards’ team is made up of First Nation youth from the Dog Creek Indian reserve on the northeastern edge of Lake Manitoba.
RCMP officers were called to the arena, and were seen escorting a number of spectators away from the game.
The incident is being investigated.
With a report from CTV Winnipeg’s Daniella Ponticelli
