Bench-clearing brawl breaks out in women's world championship game

Things may be heating up in the NHL as teams jostle for playoff position with less than a week left to the regular season, but the highlight of the weekend in the hockey world comes from a very unlikely source.

On Sunday, footage emerged of a bench-clearing brawl between Bulgaria and Romania in the final game of the Division III Group A Women's World Hockey Championship in Brasov, Romania.

In the third period of a lopsided game, Romania erupted with seven goals to get the 10-2 win in what was already a chippy contest between the two nations. Bulgaria was assessed two game misconducts and a fighting penalty throughout the match, but things really got out of control in the dying moments of the game.

At the final buzzer, two players got into a shoving match behind Team Bulgaria’s net, and the scrum quickly grew with every player on the ice piling on one another.

The officials barely made an effort to break it up as they were overwhelmed and outnumbered by the all the players joining in on the scrum, tossing aside gloves and sticks as everyone grabbed a dance partner. Even the goalies got in on the fun, if you could call it that.

Once the officials managed to separate the teams and get the bench-clearing brawl under control, 19 players were given 25-minute penalties, while Romania was also assessed a 20-minute penalty for abuse of officials. In total, 554 penalty minutes were assessed to both squads, and despite the tournament being over, there is a possibility that the International Ice Hockey Federation delivers suspensions and fines for those involved.

The game was to determine who would finish fourth in the tournament standings. Hong Kong took home the gold medal, while Ukraine and Lithuania settled for silver and bronze, respectively.