Ondrus Fights for NHL Spot

A veteran of the Leafs organization, Ben Ondrus has had more than one cup of coffee with the big club during his stay. For whatever reason, he always seems to find himself returning to the AHL’s Marlies, whom he has captained for the past two seasons. However this time around, with Toronto undergoing a complete facelift courtesy of GM Brian Burke, Ondrus is fighting, literally, to earn a spot on the Leafs roster for the immediate future and beyond.

Ondrus fought twice during Saturday’s night game between the Leafs and Oilers. The 26-year-old was outclassed in a bout with Zack Stortini in the first period, but came back to hold his own against Jason Strudwick in the third.

Elsewhere, a pair of fights occured in an inter-conference clash between the Predators and Flyers. Deadline acquistion Daniel Carcillo got into his first fight as a Flyer, exchanging punches with Greg de Vries after Carcillo laid out Kevin Klein with a hit. Seconds later, Wade Belak and Riley Cote went toe-to-toe in a classic heavyweight battle.

Krys Barch, Marathon Man

Friday night’s slate of games featured yet another elongated bout involving Krys Barch. The Stars’ sparkplug took on Ducks scrapper Sheldon Brookbank in a fight that lasted well over a minute.

Two other games had two fights each. Greg Stewart battled Chris Thorburn in a relatively even match in Habs–Thrashers. They were followed by Ryan O’Byrne and Zach Bogosian, who decided to drop the gloves during a scrum in the second period. Things also got testy late in a blowout win for the Hurricanes over the Flames. Dennis Seidenberg found himself fighting Eric Nystrom after a hard hit on Warren Peters. Shortly after that, Jim Vandermeer was challenged by Tim Conboy after Vandermeer took a run at Dwight Helminen.