Pittsburgh Penguins Fan Ejected from Game After Taking Puck from Young Boy

A Pittsburgh Penguins fan was booed out of the building after he took a puck away from a young boy in the crowd.

The viral incident, shared on X by another attendee, started when a puck went up into the netting during the second period of the Penguins' game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday, Jan. 12. The boy shook the glass boards to bring the puck down as a souvenir, but the crowd watched as an older man grabbed it instead.

Penguins fans were clearly upset with the man, who was the subject of loud booing from the crowd.

The video shared on social media shows the man getting into a heated verbal altercation with the boy's mother after a Penguins WAG saw the incident and gave the boy a puck of his own.

The crowd cheered as the young fan received his own souvenir, which appeared to upset the man who had taken the first puck, and things escalated from there. The boy's mother appeared to raise her arm in a physical manner as the crowd took sides.

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However, according to Penguins president of business operations Kevin Acklin, there are "two sides to the story" of the viral incident.

In an interview with CBS, Acklin explained, "It turns out that a puck went up into the netting and a young boy about 3 or 4 rows back went and shook the glass. And as it fell to the ground, an older gentleman reached down and grabbed the puck."

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Acklin said that the older man "by his own right gave the puck to his granddaughter" whom Acklin estimated was a teenager.

But once the young fan received the new puck, inspiring the crowd to cheer, Acklin said things "sort of got out of hand" between the two families. "There were some hand gestures, and the older gentleman was escorted out of the building," he explained.

Acklin described the incident as "unfortunate" and chalked up the tension to "a lot of passion" from the fans.

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He told the outlet that the "worst thing" about the incident was that "Tampa scored on us" during the distracting outburst by the crowd. "It was a little bit of an uproar," said Acklin.

Acklin also credited the Penguins staff for how they handled the situation and said the organization has reached out to both families "who both felt that they were in the right" during the game.

Read the original article on People