Hockey player receives lifetime ban for striking official

FOXBORO, Mass. — A video has been shared thousands of times on Twitter showing a junior league hockey player punching a ref.

The game took place at the Foxboro Sports Center Sunday.

“That’s uncalled for, you can never ever do that put a hand on a ref, or even fight out in the parking lot or any of that stuff it just doesn’t make sense to me,” said Rich Carroll, a former hockey coach.

In the video you can see the hockey player collide with the referee before the ref throws that player out of the game.

But on his way out, the player punches the ref in the face.

Hockey parents in Foxboro were appalled by the video.

“It’s not good for the hockey community, it’s a bad role model for younger kids,” said Liying Zheng.

The U.S. Premier Hockey League released a statement on the incident:

“The action taken today by a USPHL player is completely unacceptable in the USPHL. The USPHL has zero tolerance for any player striking any official, at any time. The player in question’s actions have led to a lifetime ban. The incident is currently being investigated by local authorities and as such the USPHL will have no further comments at this time.”

“Not too harsh at all, he’s 20 years old, he’s not a kid,” said Carroll.

Rich Carroll has coached hockey for more than a decade and says he’s glad this player was banned from the league to set an example for other players.

“The league absolutely should do that, there’s not a lot of refs, we don’t have a lot of refs anymore because they don’t want to deal with that stuff,” said Carroll.

Foxboro police say they’re interviewing everyone involved and haven’t yet determined whether this is a criminal matter.

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