AHL player crawls across concrete to fight opponent after ejection (Video)

With a win pretty well out of the question for the Rockford Ice Hogs on Friday night versus the Chicago Wolves after falling behind 5-0 late in the second, the frustrated Ice Hogs, who desperately need points to hold onto eighth place in the Western Conference playoff race, turned their attention to exacting a pound of flesh.

In this, they would not be denied -- especially not defenseman Bobby Shea, who made it his mission to get a piece of Ty Rattie, the star Blues prospect who leads the team in goals, and scored Chicago's third in this game. Shortly after Shea instigated a fight between the two, throwing a high elbow that earned him a five-minute major, the two players headed to their respective dressing rooms. They left the ice via their separate rubber mats.

And then Shea did something we've never seen before: he crawled -- crawled across the 15 feet of concrete separating the mats to go after Rattie again.

You guys: he crawled. Like a furious toddler.

Shea had already been tossed, receiving a game misconduct along with the five for fighting, and the other five for elbowing, but he received a second one for this strange decision for fighting off the playing surface. It made for 30 minutes in penalties at the 19:26 mark of the second.

You wonder what possessed him -- and I used possessed intentionally there, because seriously, the dude looked like Linda Blair coming down the stairs in The Exorcist.

But the bigger question, which even Rattie asked after the game, isn't why did he do it? It's why did he crawl?

“That was something else,” Rattie said. “He crawled. I don’t know why he crawled. He could have just walked across. It was weird. He got me with one (punch) and the cops jumped in.”

Obviously, it's not as easy to walk on concrete with skates on as it is to walk on those rubber paths, but it's not impossible. Maybe Shea thought it was? That's one theory, although for that one to be plausible, Shea would have to be thinking, and I suspect that he wasn't.

The Wolves would add one more goal to win the game 6-0. The two teams play again Saturday night.

s/t to Eye on Hockey.