A teenage hockey player who shot a puck at his opponents’ bench during a recent game in the northwest suburbs has been given a six-month suspension by the Amateur Hockey Association of Illinois.
In addition to disciplining the player, the association’s suspension review committee also recommended late Wednesday that both coaches be investigated by the group’s rules and ethics committee over an alleged exchange of threats and obscenities from behind the bench.
The incident occurred May 14 in a spring league game between the Northwest Chargers of Rolling Meadows and the Sharks of Buffalo Grove at the West Meadows Ice Arena. The boy plays for the Chargers, a team of 14- to 16-year-olds.
Late in the game a Sharks player shot a puck that landed on the Chargers’ bench. Though Sharks officials said the player was trying to flip the puck over players, Chargers players believed the act was intentional.
Sharks coach Larry Penzik contended that Chargers coach Tim Mueller swore at him and said the next puck “is coming at your head.” Penzik admitted he swore at Mueller, while Mueller denied swearing or making a threat.
Shortly after play resumed the Chargers player stopped near center ice, turned and shot the puck at the Sharks’ bench. The puck hit the wall behind the bench. No one was injured.
The Sharks contended that the shot was deliberate, while the Chargers maintained that the player was only trying to ricochet the puck off the boards.
The referee gave the Chargers player a match penalty, carrying an automatic 30-day suspension pending a hearing, and ended the game.
Mark Shutan, chairman of the suspension review committee, said the panel concluded that the Chargers player was attempting to send the puck into the Sharks’ bench but did not intend to injure anybody.
The player “absolutely, adamantly states that Tim Mueller did not tell him to shoot anything,” Shutan said. He said the boy apologized and said he was grateful no one had been hurt.
Mueller said the player should not have drawn so harsh a penalty, but Shutan said the decision was in line with similar cases.
The suspension bars the minor from playing for AHAI- or USA Hockey-sanctioned teams until Nov. 14. He also cannot practice with any similarly sanctioned team or participate in preseason clinics or tryouts.
Committee members unanimously voted to send both coaches to the rules and ethics board because they believed players on both teams were affected by the adults’ actions.
“The Sharks’ coaches were just as much at fault as Tim Mueller was because of the trash-talking back and forth and having 30 kids affected by it sitting on the bench,” Shutan said.
Rules and ethics investigations could take 30 days.
