ECHL Brawl Breaks Out After Racial Gesture

The East Coast Hockey League is known to be a little rough around the edges, but Saturday night in Jacksonville things got heated after an Icemen player made a racial gesture towards a player on the South Carolina Stingrays.

With about 6 minutes left in overtime, Stingrays forward Andrew Cherniwchan drove hard to the net and took out the Icemen goalie which then lead to a pileup in the corner.

The refs jumped in and players were making their way back to their benches when Icemen player Jacob Panetta made a racial gesture towards the Stingrays’ Jordan Subban who is also the brother of NHL players P.K. Subban and Malcolm Subban.

Subban and Panetta were exchanging punches as refs were holding them back, but then eventually Stingrays players got ahold of Panetta and took a nasty turn.

The Stingrays players were quick to jump to Subban’s aide during the game, while Subban’s brother P.K. was quick to take to social media to show support for his brother.

They don’t call the east coast league the jungle because my brother and the other black players are the monkeys! Hey @jacobpanetta you shouldn’t be so quick delete your Twitter or your Instagram account you will probably be able to play again… that’s what history says but things pic.twitter.com/8zOJ9q47pk

— P.K. Subban (@PKSubban1) January 23, 2022

This angle shows Panetta hunching over to look like a monkey as he was addressing Subban.

There is no room in any sport for this sort of racial gesture and we’re hoping something is handed down from the league.

The Icemen did end up winning the game 1-0 in overtime with a goal from Brendan Harris.

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