Carleton, St. Olaf Club Hockey Teams Disciplined Following Brawl at Northfield Ice Arena

After last month’s annual St. Olaf-Carleton club hockey game turned ugly, college officials say the two teams won't play each other again until at least 2014.

The rivalry between Northfield’s two colleges boiled over during a third-period, bench-clearing brawl, prompting a call to Northfield Police and a premature end to the game at the .

While fights are common in club hockey, college officials and students say that overly boisterous fan conduct distinguished this Carleton-St. Olaf game from others. At least one fan jumped the rink’s glass to get on the ice.

“The fan behavior was clearly out of line,” said Greg Kneser, St. Olaf Dean of Students. “It was an overwhelming situation.”

In response to the melee, officials from the colleges have canceled the game for the next two years. College officials are also working with the teams and individuals to address conduct violations stemming from the March 4 incident.

While Deputy Chief of Police Chuck Walerius said no one was cited or arrested by police, two St. Olaf students and one Carleton student are being disciplined, college officials said.

“It was important for us to really identify and make a statement that this behavior would not be supported,” said Hudlin Wagner, Carleton Dean of Students.

What’s more, the annual game doubles as a fundraiser for the Community Action Center of Northfield’s Food Shelf. Canceling the games for the next two years effectively stops the fundraiser that traditionally brings in about $2,000 a year.

What happened?

Tensions ran high during the first two periods of the club hockey game. Students threw cans, bottles and other debris on the ice and a St. Olaf student tossed a Zamboni tire onto the rink, Kneser said.

Fans from both colleges contributed to the hostile environment, said Rachel Feinberg, a Carleton sophomore who attended the game. Carleton students chanted “screw ya ya” (the Olaf fight song includes the lyric “um-ya-ya”). Oles, on the other hand, chanted, “Carleton sucks.”

Club hockey, sanctioned by both colleges and various leagues, is known for its rowdy behavior and aggressive play. Fighting—and lots of it—is not uncommon in games across the country.

Kneser said the action on the ice during the March 4 game wasn’t out of the norm.

The fan’s behavior, though, was unusually disruptive.

Elliot Vaughan, vice president of Carleton’s club hockey team, says fans “overstepped the boundaries of acceptable heckling.”

Although police said there wasn’t any sign of alcohol at the arena, Feinberg said it was apparent many students were drinking before attending the game.

The tension snapped during the third period, when an Ole checked a Carl in front of the St. Olaf net. After that, every player on the ice joined the melee—and St. Olaf’s bench cleared.

In trying to separate brawling players, a referee was struck in the face.

“He got hit across the bridge of the nose with a skate from someone who was on the (ice),” Walerius said. “There was no intent there.”

Some Carleton students remember the event with a certain reverence—it was a distillation of the two college’s cross-river rivalry.

“It was definitely a highlight of winter term,” said Feinberg.

Charlie Rosenthal, a Carleton sophomore who was also at the game, said it was a “great experience.”

Moving forward

While some students will remember the evening for different reasons, college officials are none too happy about what happened. They are determined to avoid a similar incident in the future.

In the weeks that followed, Kneser and Wagner met with students, police and city officials to get an accurate picture of the night and to settle on disciplinary actions.

In addition to the two-year moratorium on Carleton-St. Olaf club hockey matches, St. Olaf’s team will not play any games at the Northfield Ice Arena next year, Kneser said. Should St. Olaf and Carleton want to play each other again in 2014, the teams, which are funded through student activity fees, will have to hire extra security personnel on their own dime.

Walerius said the city planned to require extra security for the games, regardless of what decision came from the colleges.

“This is nothing new,” he said. “If (the game) is going to be school-sanctioned, they need to beef up security at these things or simply not have it.”

Kneser and Wagner said it was important the two colleges addressed the issue together and make the situation right.

“I think we’ve come together out of great respect for our community and what it is that these students need to learn in terms of their own behavior,” Wagner said.

Still, more than a month after the game, the rivalry has not faded, but Vaughn, of the Carleton team, agrees there will need to be more respect moving forward.

“We’re trying to find a way to make sure this never happens again. Everyone wants that.”

Want to read more about this?
St. Olaf's student newspaper, the Manitou Messenger, wrote about the incident last month, both in an article and an editorial. Locally Grown Northfield also blogged about the incident on April 2.