Commissioner Gilles Courteau maintains the 5-game suspension to Corey Crawford
LONGUEUIL, Thursday January 6th 2005 (QMJHL) The Commissioner of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Mr Gilles Courteau, maintained the 5-game suspension issued to Moncton Wildcats’ goaltender Corey Crawford following incidents that occurred on Wednesday December 15th in the game against the Halifax Mooseheads.
With 20 seconds to go in the third period of that game, Crawford (84/12/31) threw his stick over the glass and into the seats. Then, the Wildcats goaltender took a stick on the ice and threw it on the board. Following that, he picked up a puck, which he threw towards the referee and the linesmen in the off-ice officials’ area.
On Thursday December 23rd 2004, the Prefect of Discipline of the QMJHL, Mr Maurice Filion, announced a 5-game suspension to Mr Crawford. The suspension took into account the public apologies that Crawford made to the Halifax Mooseheads, as well as all of the incident reports.
The management of the Wildcats appealed the 5-game suspension according to the QMJHL rules and in the required delay. The hearing was held on Monday January 3rd 2005.
After having read the referees’ reports and reviewing the videotape of the incidents, as well as hearing the additional argumentation provided by Mr Allan Power (Director of Hockey Operations), by Mr Christian Larue (Head Coach) and by Crawford himself, Mr Courteau rejected the Wildcats’ appeal. In fact, Mr Courteau maintained Maurice Filion’s decision to suspend goaltender Corey Crawford for 5 games for having infringed the QMJHL rules.
« I believe that the Prefect of Discipline’s decision is just and reasonable considering all of the incidents that occurred on December 15th. Although this was Corey Crawford’s first offence since he joined the QMJHL, I believe that his actions were severe, unacceptable and very dangerous since they could have caused important injuries to a fan, a player or an official», explained Mr Courteau.
