Colorado Avalanche AHL Affiliate Eagles Get into Brawl

The Colorado Avalanche’s AHL affiliate Colorado Eagles had a very eventful win over the former AHL affiliate San Antonio Rampage.

As the Colorado Avalanche were grinding out their shootout win to beat the Vancouver Canucks, their AHL-affiliate was having more pronounced success. They were facing the Avalanche’s former AHL affiliate, the San Antonio Rampage, and delivering a beatdown. The final score was 6-0 with Pavel Francouz earning the shutout.

That wasn’t even the most noteworthy thing that Francouz did last night, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

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The two Avalanche prospects most recently sent down, Andrew Agozzino and A.J. Greer, scored for the Eagles. In fact, Agozzino earned a hat trick.

Whenever scores get out of hand like that, you sometimes see the losing team vent their frustration. The AHL has long had a reputation for being a fighting league. While I don’t think that’s true anymore, the Eagles did their best to live up to that old-timey reputation.

As the seconds wound down, Eagles winger Kale Kessy got into it with a Rampage player. Pushing and shoving ensued. As the refs pulled the Rampage player away, Kessy got a few good licks in.

As that fight wound down, an aggression sandwich started just behind them:

Now, watch Rampage goalie Ville Husso. He acted like he was going around trying to keep the mayhem at bay.

However, in the middle of his strolling around patrolling the action, he noticed two Eagles players (Sergei Boikov and Mason Geertsen) seemingly hogtying a Rampage player, Chris Butler.  What Husso didn’t see was that former Avs first rounder Conner Bleackley had helped Butler wrestle Geertsen to the ground. Boikov was just helping out.

By the time Husso turned around, the refs had pulled Bleackley away. It looked like a two-on-one, so Husso decided to help his teammate out… by throwing punches at the much-maligned Geertsen. By then, Butler had regained his feet and decided to join in the attack on Geertsen.

You can’t see it in the video above, but Francouz was watching from his end of the ice. Apparently, when he saw Husso actually get involved in the fracas, he decided to join in. It wasn’t exactly Patrick Roy charging Mike Vernon, but goalie charges are still entertaining:

Unfortunately, an ill-timed standing up in the first video means you can’t see the result of Francouz’s charge. However, another fan caught the action right up from his seat on the glass:

Francouz just knocked Husso right on over. You don’t mess with his teammates. Jusso looked utterly bewildered on where vengeance had come from.

After the game, Francouz spoke with the media. When asked about the fight, he channeled his best non-chalant Carl Soderberg and remarked, “I just saw their goalie throwing punches and there was nobody to take care of him… so I pushed him.”

That’s just Frankie, living his best life.

The Colorado Eagles, like the Colorado Avalanche, are in the hunt for a playoff spot. Games like tonight mean as much to the Eagles as it does to the NHL team down south along the Hockey Highway.