Youth hockey league investigating ‘staged’ 8U intermission fight during AHL game

A little fun involving some kids is going under review.

On Sunday, the Atlantic Amateur Hockey Association (AAHA) announced it will investigate an incident that occurred during an intermission scrimmage at a Hershey Bears game on Saturday night.

The incident question involved a couple of kids in an exhibition between 8-and-under teams start to throw punches. It began with just a couple of kids being involved, before it quickly spilled into a donnybrook.

While it’s not clear that it was a full-blown 5-on-5 line brawl, several kids were piling onto each other, seemingly having a blast getting into a fight in front of a large crowd. Even the goaltender on the team in white flies down from the other end of the ice to get involved, doing his best Neil Little impersonation when barreling into the pile. Even teammates were seemingly jokingly throwing punches at each other.

The goaltender for the white team even threw a late check as the final blow in the kerfuffle before “play” resumed.

Though it seemed like harmless fun with a bunch of kids having the time of their lives. However, the AAHA doesn’t think this was all fun and games.

In a statement, the organization noted that the events in question were planned out, and that they plan on taking action.

“We are aware of a staged fight that occurred at the Hershey Bears (AHL) game involving a Pennsylvania 8U team,” the statement read. “Affiliate, league, and club officials are investigating the matter and appropriate disciplinary action will be taken against those players and team officials involved with the staged fight.”

The AAHA also stated that the scrimmage was sanctioned by USA Hockey or the AAHA.