This Week in Ducks History: Fight Night in Calgary, First Freeway Faceoff & Boudreau's Debut

On December 8, 2001 the Mighty Ducks beat the Flames in Calgary 4-0 and things got very, very ugly.

NHL Brawl Flames VS Ducks. (via storm1811)

For those of you who might not have 23 spare minutes to watch a hockey brawl that's over a decade old, here are some of the highlights:

It all starts with Craig Berube of the Flames taking a run at J.S. Giguere behind the net with the Ducks already ahead 4-0 and less than five minutes to go. Berube receives two for roughing and two for charging.

About three minutes later (1:43 mark on the video) Kevin Sawyer retaliates by cross checking Flames goalie Mike Vernon in the face after he's already covered up the puck and the whistle has blown.

Knowing what's about to come Ducks' coach Bryan Murray makes the smart choice to protect Paul Kariya by having him serve Sawyer's major penalty.

Fights break out immediately following the next three faceoffs in a row. At this point 14 and a half minutes of real time have passed in order to run nine seconds off the clock.

At first glance the worst act in this gongshow of a game was Sawyer's run at Vernon, but then came what can only be described as a conspiracy between the Flames' players and coaching staff to get Berube back on the ice to indiscriminately attack a Duck at random, after anyone who would consider fighting had already been ejected.

Scott Nichol stops the clock by attacking Oleg Tverdovsky. As they fall to the ice Jiggy jumps on top of the pile and is ejected as a third man in. Nichol then has to be wrestled into the dressing room by a linesman so that he doesn't take a swing at anyone on the Ducks' bench.

As play resumes, Flames captain Dave Lowry recognizes that Berube's penalty has expired but he needs a stoppage in play to rejoin the game. So Lowry intentionally flips the puck out of play, taking a delay of game penalty, and allowing Berube back on the ice.

The Calgary coaching staff leaves Berube on the ice, and predictably he bull rushes the first Duck he sees, Jeff Friesen, who tries to run away and turtle. It takes two linesmen to pry Berube off of Friesen.

After Berube is sent off, there is only one skater remaining on the Calgary bench ... and we're still not done.

As the horn sounds, Igor Kravchuk, who has been one of the only Flames to stay above the fray, decides he can't show his face in the Calgary dressing room without getting involved and hammers Sergei Krivokrasov into the boards. Krivokrasov takes a few gloved swings and Kravchuk lands an almost Alex Semin-esque bongo punch on top of his head.

The following Ducks Franchise records resulted from this game:

The first and only shared shutout in Ducks History (Giguere/Steve Shields)

Most penalty minutes as a team...
In a game: 107
In a period: 101

Most penalty minutes by an opposing team...
In a game: 202
In a period: 190

Most penalty minutes by two teams combined...
In a game: 309
In a period: 291

Most penalty minutes by an individual opposing player (Berube)...
In a season: 47
In a game: 33
In a period: 31

This Week in Ducks History:

Dec. 2, 1993
Lost to the Kings 3-2 in the first ever meeting between the two franchises at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood.

Dec. 2, 1998
Announced a multi-year extension on the working agreement between the club and the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks (AHL).

Dec. 2, 2009
Acquired C Kyle Chipchura from Montreal in exchange for a fourth-round selection in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.

Dec. 2, 2011
Lost to Philadelphia 4-3 in overtime. This was Bruce Boudreau's first game as Ducks' head coach, and incidentally the only game I was really excited to write about last year. Note: This reminds me that I made a rather glaring omission in last week's Ducks History post, by leaving out the firing of Randy Carlyle and the subsequent hiring of Boudreau after a 4-1 victory over Montreal on Nov. 30.

Dec 3, 1945
GM Al Coates born in Listowel, Ontario, Candada

Dec. 3, 2008
Acquired D Logan Stephenson from Phoenix in exchange for LW Joakim Lindstrom.

Dec. 5, 1970
D Kevin Haller born in Trochu, Alberta, Canada

Dec. 5, 1979
LW Niklas Hagman born in Espoo, Finland

Dec. 5, 1991
D Cam Fowler born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Dec. 5, 1942
Coach/GM Bryan Murray born in Shawville, Quebec, Canada

Dec. 5, 2006
Reached a multi-year contract extension with FSN Prime Ticket through the 2013-14 Season.

Dec. 6, 2005
Lost to the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes 6-2. Carolina's two shorthanded goals in the second period (Kevyn Adams and future Duck Brett Hedican) stand as the Ducks' franchise record for most shorthanded goals against in a period.

Ducks related #RandomNHLfacts from @NHLhistoryGirl:

[Current Ducks goalie coach] Pete Peeters didn't play junior hockey until he was18. #Bruins #Flyers #Caps #RandomNHLfact

As a kid, Alex Steen made Bryan Marchment play goalie, got Tie Domi to play-fight, & generally bugged Teemu in #OriginalJetsdressing room

"If [Jonathan Hedstrom] wants, we are in the same hotel. I'm in D-208. Tell him to knock first. I will be there." Jarkko Ruutu at 2005 WC

Ron Tugnutt's ritual included touching his catching glove three times to the other goalie #RandomNHLfact Note: I'm not sure what this means. Is he actually touching the other goalie? If so, why would they let him? Is he touching his glove himself and directing it at the other goalie using some kind of gesture or glare? In any case it sounds weird and/or creepy, but I guess that's why he's a goalie.