Lockerby Vikings vandalize door over reffing call
LITTLE CURRENT—A Friday night home game in Little Current ended with a win for the Mustangs over the visiting Lockerby Vikings, but with tempers flared and an abrupt end to the match as the visiting squad exited the hometown barn with six minutes left on the clock.
The first period ended with a one-goal deficit for the Mustangs, but the team soon rallied notching goal after goal to allow for a four-point lead nearing the close of the third period when the score stood at 6-2.
A skirmish in front of the Mustangs net with six minutes remaining and a call by local ref Jason Thibault that ejected a Viking player from the game resulted in a melee with the Vikings eventually clearing the bench and skating off the ice in solidarity with their player. As the Lockerby players left the arena, one Viking took his anger out on the door, hitting it with his stick and causing the glass to shatter (a moment captured by the paper on video and posted on manitoulin.ca).
“Everything was fine until that moment,” Brad Bond, Mustangs coach, told The Expositor in a Monday interview. “It went from zero to 100 in about 30 seconds.”
“It was unfortunate the way it ended,” he added, noting, however, that on a positive note, the win means that the Manitoulin Mustangs are now ranked as the number three team in the league.
In an email from Dave Williamson, Northeast Town CAO, regarding the Friday night incident, he writes: “The door has been repaired and an invoice will be sent to Lockerby to cover the cost of the damage. I have also told staff that, in the future, any incidents of this nature must be reported to the OPP immediately.”
The Mustang boys play again this Friday night, January 23 at the Little Current arena, taking on the Lively Hawks.
