Will Saku Mäenalanen be banned from fighting?

In the fight between Finland and Norway, there was a rare fight for the World Hockey Championship.

Saku Mäenalanen and Magnus Brekke exchanged blows in the middle of the third installment.

– Fighting is not part of the DNA of international hockey, the IIHF rulebook says.

Mäenalanen received a game penalty for fighting. Brekke received a penalty for the game and a two-minute penalty for starting the fight. Under IIHF rules, the first striker can be considered the starter of a fight, in which case the jury can impose a two-minute penalty. That is what happened in this case.

The judges have the opportunity to cool off the fight according to the situation. In the case of Mäenalase and Brekke, the judges followed the general formula. The fight started spontaneously in the game situation, so the referees considered the game penalty the most appropriate.

If a fight had become a match penalty, it would have automatically resulted in a single match ban.

One game or not at all?

Now the discipline of the IIHF can use its own discretion and give Mäenalane and Brekke a ban from playing.

As fights have been rare at the World Championships, there are very few benchmarks in Mäenalase’s and Brekke’s cases. However, if the situation becomes a ban on gaming, the sanction will probably be a maximum of one game.

Many remember Anssi Salmelan and the United States David Backesin fight for the 2008 Games. At the time, both were banned for a match. Latvian Koba Jass waved his fists at Sweden Erik Karlssonia against in 2012, but at that time, after a previous skirmish, Jass came directly from Karlbox to attack Karlsson, surprisingly the Swede. Jass was banned from two matches.

The case of Mäenalase and Brekke was milder and did not even become a match penalty, so it is possible that the IIHF will not issue a ban.

Another fighting situation

In the match between Finland and Norway, the jury also gave the fighters in the second round. Juho Lammikko and Christian Kåsastul squeak in front of the goal.

Both still exchanged punches after the jury intervened, but it wasn’t quite as obvious a fight. However, under the rules of the IIHF, the jury has the option of exercising discretion over punishment in fights.

In the view of the jury, the fight between Pond and Kåsastul was worth a big penalty, but not a game or match penalty, so the situation became five minutes for each.

Often, similar situations become two-minute hotspots of violence, but the jury found it to be a slightly more punishable situation than normal.

The lions overthrew Norway 5–0. Finland will meet Latvia today on Saturday at 8.20 pm. The United States overthrew Latvia 4-1 on Friday.