Iowa Wild bruiser Kurtis Gabriel is in some hot water with the American Hockey League after an on-ice scrap spilled into an off-ice incident Saturday night at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill.
He has been suspended pending a league review and won't be able to play in today's Iowa-Chicago game.
With 3:51 left in the third period of Iowa's game against the Chicago Wolves, Gabriel followed, then checked Wolves defenseman Vince Dunn against the corner boards. Dunn slashed Gabriel, then Gabriel responded by cross-checking Dunn high near the face.
The two proceeded to drop the gloves and all heck broke loose.
With the locker rooms close to each other, Dunn can be seen on the video below jawing apparently with Gabriel.
Gabriel responded by walking over and confronting Dunn. With security guards hurrying over, Gabriel grabs hold of Dunn's jersey. Eventually, Gabriel jabs at Dunn's face with his left hand, and Dunn responded by flooring Gabriel with a big right across the left cheek. Nick Seeler runs to Gabriel's defense afterward.
You can see after Gabriel gets up that he's bleeding badly from the cheek.
Gabriel received a two-minute minor for cross-checking and a fighting major. Seeler received a fighting major and game misconduct for getting into a secondary altercation.
Dunn received a fighting major. Scooter Vaughan received a fighting major and game misconduct for getting into a secondary altercation. James Wisniewski (remember him?) received a game misconduct for "third man in."
Iowa plays again at Chicago this afternoon at 3. As of now, an AHL spokesperson said no ruling has been made whether Gabriel and Dunn can play in the game. One has to think Gabriel will be receiving a pretty significant suspension though.
Old-school...The whole thing reminds me of when I covered the West Palm Beach Blaze in the defunct four-team Sunshine Hockey League. These types of incidents happened WEEKLY!
Gabriel, 23, a 2013 third-round pick by Minnesota, has 39 penalty minutes and seven fights in 16 NHL games.
He has been in 37 fights in 179 Iowa games.
The Wild's bye officially ends today with a 5 p.m. practice at Xcel Energy Center in preparation for back-to-back home/road games against Los Angeles and Winnipeg.
I'll update the blog if there's anything more from the AHL today.
