The holidays are upon us, and it appears that someone forgot to let the Spokane Chiefs and Tri City Americans know about it.
Spokane’s Adam Helewka was suspended Tuesday for six games after a post-horn incident this past Saturday. The six-game suspension is the longest in the WHL this season and carried with it a $1,000 fine for the Chiefs.
Things got heated as the final horn sounded to wrap up Tri City’s 4-3 win over the Chiefs in Spokane Saturday. Helewka appeared to jump Americans defenceman Parker Wotherspoon after the linesman previously separated them. He then landed several punches to Wotherspoon’s head that left the Tri City defenceman on the ice and bleeding.
To make matters worse, Wotherspoon was wearing a full shield to protect from an earlier injury. Helewka ripped off the helmet and visor before administering the blows.
Helewka was assessed a five-minute fighting major along with a game misconduct for the incident while Wotherspoon was not penalized. After reviewing the video, the WHL determined the combination of the fight occurring after the final horn along with the resulting cuts and injury that Helewka should sit for six games.
This will be a loss for the Chiefs, who have flourished since the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda returned the 20-year-old Helewka to the team. Helewka returned to the lineup for Spokane on Oct. 28 and his 29 points in the 19 games since have helped propel the Chiefs into the thick of the U.S. Division race.
The former San Jose Sharks fourth-round pick will miss the next meeting between the two clubs on New Year’s Eve which hopefully will help to cool things off. However, the division rivals still have five more meetings to go this season, so this may not be the last of the bad blood.
The six-game ban is the longest suspension in the WHL since Seattle’s Evan Wardley was given seven games for a hit on Portland’s Nic Petan early in the 2014-15 season.
