Guelph Storm’s Robby Fabbri remains out; 10-game headshot ban for Plymouth Whalers’ Yannick Rathgeb

With the Guelph Storm's No. 1 centre Robby Fabbri set to miss his second game since being checked in the head on Friday, Plymouth Whalers defenceman Yannick Rathgeb has learned his fate.

The Ontario Hockey League has handed down a 10-game ban — pretty standard, really — to Rathgeb for the illegal check that occurred during the second period of Game 1 of the Western Conference playoff series. After losing the puck on a drive to the net, Fabbri got entangled with goalie Alex Nedeljkovic and was balanced on one foot as he tried to retrieve the puck behind the Whalers net. Fabbri was bent over and appeared to be focused on regaining full control of the puck when Rathgeb, the backside defenceman, caught him with a blindside hit. It's impossible to know what Rathgeb's intent actually was, especially when it involves players and split-second decisions. On the slow-motion replay it looks like the classic hit on a vulnerable player, which is what the OHL frowns upon.

It wasn't necessarily head-hunting, but it doesn't have to be to incur supplemental discipline in the OHL. The 6-foot, 185-pound Rathgeb, a first-year Swiss import, has actually been a relatively clean player with only 48 penalty minutes in 57 regular-season games at his defence spot. Nevertheless, there have to be consequences, especially when the Western Conference top seed Storm are dealing with some, namely the absence of a 45-goal scorer. It hasn't prevented Guelph from being up 2-0 on Plymouth going into Game 3 on Tuesday.

The OHL also handed a five-game suspension to Windsor Spitfires left wing Cristiano DiGiacinto for initiating a fracas between the Spits and London Knights on Saturday.

The league's release said DiGiacinto committed "bullying actions" when he accosted the London Knights' Gemel Smith, who refused to drop his gloves. That touched off a melee between the teams.

It's an interesting wording by the OHL, to say the least. The Knights did not have any players suspended for their parts in the brawl.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.