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Pat Ginnell resigns in aftermath of The BrawlSun-CPSASKATOON — Coach Pat Ginnell announced his resignation Monday night as coach of Victoria Cougars of the Western Canada Hockey League.Ginnell tendered his resignation at a 4‘^-hour regularly-scheduled league meeting. Primarily, the meeting discussed a wild brawl in a game last Friday between the Cougars and Saskatoon Blades which resulted in several serious injuries to Saskatoon players.Ginnell will remain as owner of theteam.League President Ed Chynoweth announced after the meeting — a session that he said was “tension packed” — several suspensions have been handed out to Victoria and Saskatoon players.Ginnell told reporters that he was not pressured into resigning.Chynoweth. though, said he suggested to Ginnell on Sunday that he resign.Ginnell said he did not feel that he was totally to blame for the violent incident, but admitted that he had to accept someresponsibility.“If I am responsible for violence in hockey, I don’t want to be in it,” he said.Acknowledging that he has been accused by the news media and other coaches of encouraging the type of play that results in rough hockey, Ginnell said he couldn’t remember the last time his team was involved in a brawl in Victoria.He said films of the game indicate clearly that the high-sticking incident that set off the brawl was an accident.Victoria’s Greg Tebbutt, who receivedhas been indefinitely suspended. Chynoweth said Tebbutt “pounded the head of a Saskatoon player onto the ice” on two different occasions.Peter Goertz of Saskatoon was ordered to sit out three games for being the first recognized player to come off the bench and enter the fracas. Goertz will sit out Saskatoon’s next game, plus the remake game between the Cougars and Blades, rescheduled for sometime in March.Three Victoria players left the penaltybox to join in the fight and two of them—• A1 Hill and Lorry Gloeckner — received the league’s automatic one-game suspension for leaving the penalty box. The third, Tebbutt, is being penalized for that infraction as part of his indefinite suspension.Chynoweth told reporters at a news conference that Curt Fraser was one of the Victoria players who left the box and received a one-game suspension. But later, after being questioned by reporters who said the official game report indicated Fraser did not leave the box, C'hynoweth said he had made a mistake and that Fraser was not under suspension.Hill and Gloeckner will serve their suspensions the next time Victoria playshere.One of Ginnell’s colleagues, coach Ernie McLean of New Westminster Bruins, said Monday that Saskatoon coach Jack McLeod should have been penalized by the league for allowing his players into the melee.‘I hope the coaches and players willget the message that we can’t put up with this type of stuff,” said Chynoweth.No charges have been laid yet as a result of the melee, but police are investigating.A scheduled game Sunday night between the Cougars and Blades here was postponed when city council ordered the Saskatoon arena closed in fear that a rematch might result in more violence.Ginnell said his replacement would probably be named today. Former Cougar trainer Jim Bryson, a friend of Ginnell’s, handled the Cougars Monday as they lost 9-3 in Edmonton to the OilKings.Ginnell expressed his sympathy to Saskatoon’s Bryan Baron, who is in hospital with a serious eye injury. The brawl also resulted in Saskatoon’s Glen Leg-gott receiving a broken nose and concussion. Team-mate Fred Williams required 14 stitches to close a lip cut, suffered prior to the brawlAnother Blade, Bruce Hamilton, suffered a concussion in an earlier incident in the game.
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Brandon Sun
Brandon, Manitoba, CA
Tue, Feb 24, 1976
Page 6
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