BRANTFORD -- During the course of a hockey season, seeing a goal-mouth scrum is almost as common as witnessing a goal being scored.
It’s near impossible to put a number on how many times it happens.
However, for the Whitby Dunlops, one post-whistle fracas went a long way in etching out the final chapter of their 2007-08 season.
During the first period of Wednesday’s game against Lloydminster, commotion around the goal resulted in the Dunlops’ receiving a trio of five-minute majors, one each for head-checking, kneeing and slashing, which forced them into Thursday’s quarterfinal minus two of their top forwards.
On Friday, a day after Whitby’s national championship dreams were dashed by the Allan Cup host Brantford Blast, Dunlops coach Mike Posavad struggled to explain the difficultly of leaving the tournament empty-handed for a third straight year.
“I guess it really hasn’t sunk in,” he said. “I’ve read some of the guys’ e-mails and talked to people and it’s hard. We worked so long and hard. Some of these guys have put four years into this organization and we had really high hopes.
“The only successful season for us would have been winning it all.”
Now the Dunlops seem to be left with more questions than answers as the off-season they had hoped to postpone by a couple of days arrived early.
“The turning point obviously was the Lloydminster game,” Posavad says. “With everything that happened, there is no question that was, for us, the turning point of the tournament. I guess that disbelief, more than anything, is what we feel.”
Though the game sheet at www.pointstreak.com fails to show the events that overshadowed Wednesday’s game, the melee apparently started when captain Peter MacKellar was banging away at a loose puck at the side of the net. As the whistle blew, he was cross-checked from behind, prompting a swift punch to the face of the opposing player in response, which led to him being slapped with a head-checking major, a game misconduct and one-game suspension.
“I got pushed into the boards and all of the sudden I have two or three guys coming at me and I was just protecting myself,” explains the captain. “I admit I threw a punch, but that happens 10 or 20 times a game. That exact same play. I have never seen that call in all my years of hockey.”
While that was going on, Ron Baker was also plowed into the boards, and when he fell knee-first onto the head of a Border Kings player, he was given an attempt to injure, an ejection and two-game suspension.
Though Posavad admits to not seeing the play clearly, he failed to believe that intent on Baker’s part to injure was there.
“The referee said it was a deliberate attempt to injure, but Ron Baker is not that kind of player,” said the coach.
Mike Van Volsen received the other major on the play on a slashing call.
The Dunlops have little choice but to move on now and Posavad says he is looking forward to the summer and the potential opportunity to construct the roster for next season.