Brandon McNally suspended for two games

Devils' forward receives suspension

On Wednesday night in Dundee, Cardiff Devils forward Brandon McNally was assessed a Major and Game Misconduct Fighting penalty at the end of the second period.

As the video shows, at the end of the second period Stars defenceman Drydn Dow and Devils Forward Cole Sandford become involved in an altercation. Players from both teams, including McNally, “pair up” and the officials intervene.

As the players disperse from the altercation, McNally, who is still tied up with Stars Spencer Dorowicz, is instructed by the officials to leave the ice. At this point, he is assessed an initial minor penalty.

Instead of directly leaving the ice surface as instructed, McNally next grabs Stars defenceman Michael Porier, pulling his helmet off and punching Porier in the back of the head down onto the ice. It is important to note that at no point is Porier a willing combatant, and in addition he is in a vulnerable position unable to protect himself. The officials intervene, however instead of stopping McNally continues to throw punches directed at Porier continuing an altercation and stopping the officials carrying out their duties.

Once McNally and Porier are separated, he gets up from the ice and starts skating towards the Devils’ locker room area. Once again, instead of directly proceeding from the ice, he engages Stars captain Dryden Dow with a two-handed gloved shove to the upper chest and head area of Dow, knocking him to the ice. As McNally is being escorted off the ice by the linesman, a bottle is thrown from the crowd on to the ice in the vicinity of McNally and the linesman. As he leaves the ice, a verbal exchange ensues with fans in the public seating areas and ends with a member of the public leaving the seated area and running towards McNally. The Linesmen, along with Devils players and the arena security, quickly diffuse the situation with McNally being taken into the team locker room area and the spectator ejected from the building.

While fighting occurs during the game of Hockey, there are specific rules in place surrounding both willing and unwilling combatants. In this incident, McNally engages multiple unwilling combatants and shows no regard for his opponents or the safety of the game officials. In addition, when instructed to leave the ice, players should proceed directly to the locker room or penalty box as indicated by the game officials, and at no point enter public areas.

To summarise:

• Aggressor of an altercation
• No History - McNally has neither been fined nor suspended during the 21/22 EIHL Season.

Effective immediately, Cardiff Devils' #74 Brandon McNally is fined and suspended for two games.

Following on from this incident, Dundee Stars will be investigated by EIHL Hockey Operations and work to ensure similar incidents involving spectators and items being thrown onto the playing surface are not repeated.

Additionally, Cardiff Devils #74 Brandon McNally is further fined for failing to proceed directly to the locker room after being ejected and instructed to do so by the game officials.