Both teams lose
On Sunday January 10th, the KHL Disciplinary committee held a meeting to investigate and act on the events of the previous day’s game between Vityaz and Avangard. The game was abandoned due to neither side having the requisite number of players to continue, as most of the playing staff had received penalties until the end of the game.
The League studied the incidents which took place during both the pre-match warm up and the match itself, and considered the actions of individuals involved in the violence and the general atmosphere in and around the playing area. KHL specialists studied video material, heard testimony from representatives of Vityaz and Avangard, and received reports from the match inspector and match officials.
The KHL Disciplinary committee, according to the given disciplinary rules, has decided on the following:
- For the disruption of a Championship game, including technical violations committed, according to the stipulated regulation the teams are to be fined the sum of 1,000,000 rubles.
- Taking into account the damage caused to the reputation of the Kontinental Hockey League, its partners, and to Russian hockey as a whole, and also the number of violations committed and their initiation, an added fine of 3,000,000 rubles is to be imposed on HC Vityaz.
- A fine of 50,000 rubles is to be imposed on the teams’ head coaches, Alexei Yarushkin and Igor Nikitin.
- A warning to HC Vityaz of possible expulsion from the Kontinental Hockey League Championship in the event of any repetition of similar violations which result in the disruption of a Championship game.
- A fine of 150,000 rubles is to be imposed on the main protagonists from both teams - Darsy Verot, Brandon Sugden, Alexander Svitov and Dmitry Vlasenkov.
- For the number of penalties they have incurred in both this game and in previous Championship games, a one-game disqualification is imposed on the following Vityaz players: Darsy Verot, Brandon Sugden, Sergei Zuborev, Rustam Bakhriddinov, Alexei Litvinenko and Dmitry Megalinsky, and also the Avangard player Dmitry Vlasenkov.
In all, 16 Vityaz players were handed a total of 356 minutes of penalties, and 17 Avangard players received a total of 351 minutes.
