Watch insane benches clearing hockey brawl; with pink jerseys, 13 ejections between IceHogs and Rapids (VIDEO)

To quote the great Ron Burgundy: “Boy, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got out of hand fast.”

With that, we give you the Rockford IceHogs (Chicago Blackhawks affiliate) and the Grand Rapids Griffins (Detroit Red Wings affiliate) in an AHL benches-clearing brawl that exploded on Saturday night, as 13 players were ejected from the game during the second period.

But wait … they weren’t done yet.

Here’s a bit more of the brawl:

Without question, the most intense hockey brawl we’ve ever seen in which one of the teams was dressed like cupcake icing. (It was “Pink In The Rink” night in Rockford, to raise money for breast cancer research.)

So how did this madness start?

From Reed Schreck of the Rockford Register Star, on the 11-6 loss by the IceHogs to the Griffins:

It all started when Rockford’s Kyle Beach and Grand Rapids’ Riley Sheahan squared off. Rockford definitely needed a spark, trailing 6-3 and having had five straight minor penalties called against it in the first 11 minutes of the second period.

Fights started breaking out all over. Then the benches emptied. Even Rockford goalie Carter Hutton went flying down the ice to take on counterpart Petr Mrazek. “Guys are sticking up for each other, and that’s a big part with us,” said Rockford captain Martin St. Pierre. “Everybody backs up each other. It doesn’t matter what your role is on the team.”

Here were the penalties from the brawl, including the 13 game misconducts:

Gleason Fournier Gr (fighting, game misconduct - secondary altercation), 11:58;
Brian Lashoff Gr (fighting, game misconduct - secondary altercation), 11:58;
Petr Mrazek Gr (fighting, game misconduct - secondary altercation), 11:58;
Francis Pare Gr (fighting, game misconduct - secondary altercation), 11:58;
Riley Sheahan Gr (fighting), 11:58;
Tomas Tatar Gr (fighting, game misconduct - secondary altercation), 11:58;
Kyle Beach Rfd (instigating, fighting, misconduct - instigating, game misconduct - aggressor), 11:58;
Wade Brookbank Rfd (fighting, game misconduct - secondary altercation), 11:58; Adam Clendening Rfd (fighting, game misconduct - secondary altercation), 11:58;
Rob Flick Rfd (game misconduct - leaving the bench), 11:58;
Carter Hutton Rfd (fighting, game misconduct - secondary altercation), 11:58;
Shawn Lalonde Rfd (fighting, game misconduct - secondary altercation), 11:58;
Kenndal McArdle Rfd (game misconduct - third man in), 11:58;
Philippe Paradis Rfd (fighting, game misconduct - secondary altercation), 11:58

Well that was spirited. The teams exchanged words after the game, but there were no further fireworks.

As the Register Star notes, there were 230 penalty minutes in this game. There had been 413 PIMs in the teams’ previous four battles combined.

Circle Feb. 22 on the calendar for ye olde rematch.

s/t PD reader George Cotugno