The Story:
Blame the Russians! That was Don Cherry's reaction to the bench-clearing brawl. Canada was going for gold, leading 4-2. Then a fight broke out, both benches emptied, and a 20-minute fracas erupted. Cherry, always lenient on hockey violence, applauded the Canadian players, saying that sacrificing a medal to fight the Soviets was simply "our Canadian way."
The "Punch-up in Piestany" erupted halfway through the final game of the 1987 world junior championship. Canada was assured a medal, and would have moved ahead of Finland for the gold if they had beaten the Soviets by at least five goals.
The blow-up began as a fight between Pavel Kostichkin and Theoren Fleury. Four Soviet players left their bench to join the brawl, and then all the players on both teams swarmed onto the ice.
The pugilists, who included Brendan Shanahan and Mike Keane (and the goalies of both the Canadian and Soviet teams) could not be separated even when the arena lights were turned out. After 20 minutes, they simply wore out and stopped fighting. The rest of the game was cancelled. The IIHF voted to expel both teams from the tournament and Finland was awarded the gold.
The fight divided Canadians on the perennial issue of violence in hockey. While most observers agreed that the Soviets goaded the Canadians into fighting, some felt the Canadians displayed an embarrassing lack of discipline and self-control. Others, like Don Cherry, believed the Canadians had no choice but to rush to defend their embattled teammates.
Players aside, there was plenty of blame to go around. Federal sports minister Otto Jelinek and Hockey Canada chair Alan Eagleson blamed inept referees who were used to officiating lower-calibre amateur events. (Norwegian referee Hans Ronning and his linesmen were unable to stop the fighting, and even left the ice at one point.)
Critics blamed Canadian head coach Bert Templeton, who had a history of scuffles among junior teams in his charge. His Canadian junior team had been involved in a pre-game fight with the American squad just three days earlier.