Wild Night in the AHL

Saturday night’s AHL action produced 20 fights, including six in the Syracuse Crunch at Binghamton Senators game and another five in the Hamilton Bulldogs at Toronto Marlies game.

The festivities in Binghamton began about midway through the first period after Mark Borowiecki sent a Crunch player tumbling awkwardly into the end boards. Jared Nightingale was first to respond to the scene of the crime and the two had a quick tussle. Both combatants would fight again before the night was through: Nightingale squared off with Hugh Jessiman early in the second, while Borowiecki went after Jean-Philippe Cote in the third.

The pugilistic highlight of the game came midway through the second period when goaltenders Robin Lehner and Riku Helenius squared off at the B-Sens’ blue line. The fight was the end result of a scrum in Binghamton’s goal crease that began after a couple Crunch players crashed Lehner’s net. Lehner was buried under multiple bodies and came up steaming after Richard Panik gave him an extra jab to the melon, prompting the Finnish Helenius to make his way down from the other end of the ice and engage the Swedish Lehner.