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Any comments on the 12 and 13 year old girls fighting that took place this last weekned in the 12U Tier I division of the International Cup. One girl carried away on a stretcher, one girl sprained ankle, one team forced to forfit due to too many penalties, parents fighting in the stands.

For me, it would seem, that the true nature of the game has been lost. As I have read several times on this forum, the game of "WOMEN'S HOCKEY" is a game of speed, passing and posession time. So while watching these young women and realizing that all teams involved were Canadian teams, I wondered if the style of hockey being toaught to Canadian girls differs that much from the style here in Minnesota.

I AM NOT BASHING CANADA HOCKEY! But do they allow a more physical style of hockey in Canada? If so, should the teams coming into Minnesota to play be alerted or informed of the style of hockey played here.

Now I can't answer definitively as I am far from an expert on women's hockey, but many of the girls who would be playing in higher level girls hockey have likely played in boys/minor hockey systems in Canada. I know that the girl who left that game with a broken tibia played on my son's team and was one of the more physical players in that league. Many of the top girls don't make the change to girls hockey until bantam, some others make the change if they make the local girls aaa pee wee team.

It has to be an adjustment as these girls were playing in their first non-checking tournament in a couple years.

I AM NOT BASHING CANADA HOCKEY! But do they allow a more physical style of hockey in Canada? If so, should the teams coming into Minnesota to play be alerted or informed of the style of hockey played here.

I think you may have the story off a little bit. Unless there were a couple incidents. The one I witnessed had a Canadian U14 player being stretchered off the ice. What I was told is that she was run from behind in the last min of a game that was no longer in contention. They were playing a WI team and not a Canadian team. Did not see the hit just heard the story from a player who was watching the game while they were waiting by the glass. According to the player I talked to the hit looked like a deliberate intent to injure play.

Are you talking about the Westman Wildcats U14? My daughter's team played them--I thought they were big and fast and skilled but perfectly behaved and not cheap. They weren't even very physical since they didn't have to be in order to win the tournament--the highlight for the Americans was when they broke the Wildcats shutout. They ended up allowing exactly one goal in the tournament. We also saw them two years ago in U12 and they weren't chippy then either. There are always going to be isolated incidents.....

I believe the game in question was the 12U Maplehawks vs Northern Hawks game. At least that was the game I was commenting on