Brandon’s Jayce Hawryluk should be suspended for spear in Game 4 vs Thunderbirds

In the third period of Game 4 of the WHL Championship on Wednesday night, an ugly incident took place deep in the Seattle zone.

In the midst of a Brandon power play and with Seattle up 3-0 with just under 13 minutes remaining, T-Birds defenseman Turner Ottenbreit gained control of a puck that had found its way into the corner of the zone. Ottenbreit attempted to clear the puck up the boards but was unsuccessful as a Brandon defender stopped the puck at the blue line.

Related: Thunderbirds stave off elimination with 6-1 win in Game 4

In what was a tense situation where Brandon almost had to score to give itself a shot at winning, most eyes stayed glued to the puck. It didn’t take long to notice that Ottenbreit, shortly after his clearing attempt, collapsed into a heap in the left circle.

Play continued for a few seconds as Brandon controlled the puck. It wasn’t until Ottenbreit’s defensive partner, Ethan Bear, cleared the puck over the glass that play stopped.

During the regular pace of play, it was unclear what happened to Ottenbreit. There wasn’t a bone-crushing hit. No errant slapshot hit him in the face. However, once a replay of the incident showed on the jumbotron, it became abundantly clear exactly what had happened.

Brandon’s Jayce Hawryluk, a skilled forward who led the Wheat Kings with 106 points during the regular season and is known as an agitator, very obviously used the blade of his stick to spear Ottenbreit between the legs in the groin area. Ottenbreit, who was facing the other way, hadn’t done anything in the moments immediately prior to instigate such a heinous attack from Hawryluk.

@TPS_Guy here is a look from 3 seconds earlier pic.twitter.com/7jbWq7jJKm

— whitingjon (@whitingjon) May 12, 2016

The play, which happened when Ottenbreit had his back turned to Hawryluk as he watched his clearing attempt, resulted in no penalty for the Brandon forward and Florida Panthers prospect. Watch the replay and you can see T-Birds coach Steve Konowalchuk ask the referees for a penalty of the five-minute variety, which would have warranted an automatic video review by the league.

Konowalchuk’s pleas resulted in no action during Game 4, but the league can choose to make things right if it suspends Hawryluk for at least a portion of the rest of the series, however long it may last.

There is precedent here, both in the WHL and NHL.

Most WHL discipline related to spearing results in a one- or two-game suspension for the offender. There was one incident in November 2014 when Victoria’s Brandon Magee received a five-game suspension. The WHL included this explanation for the lengthy suspension on their website:

“Five games for spear major and g.m. versus Kelowna on November 19- This is the player’s third suspension for a stick infraction in two seasons”

As a repeat offender, particularly for stick infractions, Magee was punished accordingly.

Hawryluk has been suspended four times during his four-year WHL career for a total of 14 games, but never for stick infractions. Those suspensions came for two charging majors, a check from behind, and supplemental discipline.

In the NHL, we’ve seen other similar situations. In December 2015, Brandon Prust of the Vancouver Canucks delivered an ugly spear to the groin of Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand.

Prust was assessed a 10-minute misconduct for the infraction, ejected from the game, and fined $5,000 dollars.

Milan Lucic got 2 games for this one: https://t.co/QSKvFhREdU @tpigulski @AndyEide @AndyNeal_Vic @DuckMillard

— Guy Flaming (@TPS_Guy) May 12, 2016

The play above looks very similar to what Hawryluk did and resulted in a two-game suspension for Milan Lucic.

The only course of action the WHL can really take to remove these kinds of dirty plays from the game, without the ability to fine players, is to force them to miss games. You can bet that if Hawryluk were to miss a couple of games in the Championship of what’s likely his final WHL season, he might think twice about doing it again.

As of this writing, Hawryluk is not listed on the WHL’s Discipline page. With Game 5 on Friday and a chance for the Wheat Kings to either wrap things up or Seattle to send the series back to Brandon, precedent and the egregiousness of Hawryluk’s actions mean he shouldn’t be on the ice.

It was reported later in the period that Hawryluk had been exchanging pleasantries with T-Birds star Mathew Barzal, who he reportedly told he was “going to get.” Later in the period, Hawryluk stayed true to his word as he was penalized for slashing the T-Birds center. It was another dangerous and seemingly intentional play that could be factored into the decision of whether or not to discipline Hawryluk, who apparently didn’t feel too guilty about using his stick as a weapon earlier in the game. In the case of this incident, there is no video evidence to support what was reported, so not penalizing him further for it is at least somewhat understandable.

That wouldn’t be the case if he receives absolutely no discipline for the appalling use of his stick to strike Ottenbreit in what he knows is a sensitive and unprotected area.