Newfoundland hockey player suspended, banned from local arena after off-ice fight with fan

A combination of a thrown stick and thrown punches have given a senior hockey player in Newfoundland a three-game suspension and an indefinite ban from one of his league's six arenas.

Defenceman Justin Pender, who plays with the Clarenville Caribous of the Avalon East Senior Hockey League, is facing discipline after he threw a broken stick towards a taunting fan in an arena hallway, then walked down that hallway and punched the man several times.

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The incident was captured on security video and shared widely on Facebook.

In the video, one of Pender's teammates comes running down the hall after Pender, followed by Ivan Hapgood, the general manager of the Caribous.

"I'll make it clear to you. I don't condone, in any way at all, the actions of Justin Pender in that incident," Hapgood told CTV News on Wednesday. "I don't condone it in any way, and he and I have certainly had a lengthy conversation about it since."

The incident was preceded by a rough third period, where the Caribous trailed the HGOE CeeBee Stars in Harbour Grace during a lopsided game.

A hefty 122 penalty minutes were handed out in the third period, including 12 to Pender who was given a penalty for slashing and a misconduct.

Pender was ejected from the game, but instead of walking directly to his team's dressing room he engaged with a group of four spectators who were taunting him in the hallway.

"It all goes back to one thing: If security was there, none of it would have happened," Hapgood said.

He said both the fans and the player shouldn't have done what they did — but explained he believes the arena should have had a better security presence to stop fans from getting so close to a player who had just been ejected.

Since the incident on Oct. 26, changes have been made for senior men's hockey games in Harbour Grace. Mayor Don Coombs said his town council and the CeeBees worked together to ensure there will be security staff in the arena — there were none on the night of the incident.

Coombs said his town council handed down a ban of a "few weeks" to the taunting fan, and an indefinite ban to Pender. He said he expects town council to review the ban and likely rescind it at some point in the future.

"Fortunately, nobody's seriously hurt," Coombs said. "But we can't have it going on again, you know, things being thrown and punches being punched and thrown. That's not acceptable."

Pender declined to comment when approached by CTV News. Hapgood says the player knows he made a mistake.

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Pender spent time in the ECHL, formerly known as the East Coast Hockey League, and the QMJHL or Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League before returning to Newfoundland to play competitive, amateur sports.

"Like a lot of players do … he does play the game on the edge," Hapgood said. "But listen. He's a good defenceman, he was one of the top defencemen in our league last year."

"If you were in Clarenville next Saturday night when he puts on the gear — if there's 10 kids that come down from upstairs with their parents looking for autographs, looking for pictures, nine out of the 10 want Pender, he's that popular."

The incident happened at the Danny Cleary Community Centre in Harbour Grace. Pender will miss his team's next scheduled game there — because of his three-game suspension — and could possibly return this season only if the two teams meet for a playoff matchup.