Line brawl starts with goalie getting Lucic’d, nearly ends with penalty box fight (VIDEO)

The Sheffield Spartans and the Trafford Metros play in the NIHL North 1 Ice Hockey League over in the UK. In a Sept. 30 game, they engaged in a line brawl to end the second period of an eventual 8-1 win for the Spartans.

What it lacked in punches, it made up for in sheer weirdness.

To wit:

• The fight is sparked by a solid Lucic'ing of the Trafford goalie, which leads to a scrum that features a lot of jersey tugging. Then a Trafford player seems to realize, "Hey, maybe there should be some fighting in this fight," and tosses a few punches.

• The opposing goalie sprints across the ice for some more jersey tugging and dancing, leading the Trafford goalie to give the "why are you picking on me?" hands of frustration to the linesman as they break it up.

• About 1:31 in, this line brawl pretty much sucks. And then we cut to center ice, where two players have broken off from the pack and are going at it. The Trafford player rabbit-punches the Sheffield player's sides, and then delivers a DDT on the ice. A DDT!

• Then things get awkward: The Sheffield player gets up and bull rushes his foe into the open penalty box, as the on-ice officials call for the door to be closed. We have to say, this is a rather novel way to end a fight: Delivering your opponent into his own sin bin. It's like a casket match in the WWE.

• The remaining 29 seconds of the period were tacked onto the third. Despite sparking the line brawl by running the opposing goalie, the Spartans were given a 5-minute power play because the Trafford coach and a player both left their bench.