Finland’s Juho Lammikko and Saku Mäenalanen both received penalties for fighting at the opening of the World Championships, but Mäenalanen was sentenced to expulsion. Jyri Rönn, the refereeing director of the Finnish Championship League, says that there are changes in the international fighting rules behind the duo’s various penalties.
Finland grabbed a clear 5–0 victory over Norway in the opening match of its 2022 World Cup home race. In addition to a plentiful number of goals, the match also saw heated feelings that led to a violent showdown between players.
Forwards from the Finnish team Juho Lammikko and Saku Mäenalanen received penalties for fighting in the fight. The pond got to Norway Christian I joined with a five-minute penalty for his second round of goalkeeping.
Mäenalanen, on the other hand, dropped his glove in the final set of the match. The Finnish striker tackled a strong Norwegian defender Magnus Brekken in the corner of the trough, from which Brekke lost his nerve.
Mäenalanen, on the other hand, provoked the Norwegian to hit him in the chest after the tackle and then in the face with a glove. After that, Mäenalanen dropped his glove and the duo exchanged strikes before joining the line judges.
Mäenalanen received a five-minute penalty and a 20-minute penalty. Brekke was given a chance to change things around.
The judgments caused confusion in the audience. According to previous rules of the International Hockey Federation IIHF, a five-minute penalty and a game penalty are directly imposed for a fight. Now the verdicts were different.
Champions League referee Jyri Rönn says the rule book, updated for the period 2021-22, gives judges greater scope to determine the quality of penalties in this way.
– Now the referees can also give clean five minutes, without penalties. In that case, the player suffers it and continues the game, Rönn summarizes to Sport for the phone.
Zero tolerance with more detailed rules
– “Fighting” is not part of the DNA of international hockey, it reads at the beginning of the rulebook section.
Compared to the old IIHF rulebook, the current international rulebook has received more sub-paragraphs for the interpretation of fighting situations. The subsections come from the NHL, with which the IIHF has sought to integrate its rules.
Among other things, separate penalty definitions have been raised in the NHL for the interpretation of situations, for example, in situations where a player enters a fight as a third player or strikes another player unexpectedly (eng. Sucker punch).
– When it comes to the rules related to fighting situations, ie violence, giving that “pure five-minute” is the biggest change, Rönn, the referee’s league referee, opens.
– These changes give judges more discretion and tools in such situations. The aim is to differentiate between situations.
One of the clear changes is, for example, the clarifications defining the “instigator” and the “aggressor”. A “instigator” in a fighting situation is a player who is in the role of initiating a fight, either physically or verbally. Such starters include, for example, giving the first blow, dropping gloves, or verbally challenging.
Under this rule, Brekke of Norway received an extra two minutes of fighting with Mäenalanen. As the situation progressed to a clear exchange of blows, the duo got straight out, unlike Pond and Kaasastul. The different penalties for those who have been penalized have therefore come from the referees of the match Fraser Lawrencen and Mikael Nordin in accordance with its interpretations of the new rules.
Rönn does not comment on the situations themselves or the penalties imposed for them. He commented briefly on the future of the Finnish Championship League with international rule changes.
– We have gone by the old rule scale of the previous season. We’ll see during the summer if we completely replace it with this new one, he notes.