Dave Morinville has seen a lot in his 14 years behind the bench as head coach of the Moorhead Spuds. He has never seen anything like this.
A parent made a complaint about a hazing incident with the Moorhead High School boys hockey team. After an investigation, Morinville was handed a one-game suspension and an unnamed number of players will be suspended from hockey for two weeks and school for three days.
A source close to the investigations says that four players will be serving the suspensions, which could start as early as today.
The incident could not have come at a worse time for Moorhead. The Spuds are finally starting to click and score. They defeated previously top ranked and undefeated Wayzata in the St. Louis Park tournament and they are coming off of a 5-2 win at home against East Grand Forks and an 8-0 whipping of Thief River Falls on the road.
The five- and eight-goal outputs are the two largest for Moorhead since 2009.
If the suspensions start today, Morinville and a handful of players will not accompany the team as they head to Minnetonka to take on the No. 11 Skippers.
The two week suspension will see the players missing games against section foes St. Cloud Tech and Buffalo, a rematch against Wayzata, and a game against East Grand Forks. The only home game of the four is January 18 against Buffalo.
The suspended players will be eligible to return January 22nd against Warroad, that is if they begin their suspensions today.
Clearly, not all the questions are answered. What actually happened? Which players were suspended? Does it compare to the Elk River football hazing incident? Some of the questions won't be answered. Some will. For now, we must wait and see which players were suspended and when they start sitting out.
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