The final days of a former Prince George Cougar’s Western Hockey League (WHL) career could be numbered.
Kody McDonald of the Victoria Royals has been suspended indefinitely by the league’s Department of Player Safety after taking an apparent swing with his stick at Kamloops player Zane Franklin, and appears to hit his face, while on the bench during Game Four of their playoff series with the Blazers.
At the 7:58 mark of the third period, the soon-to-be 21-year-old forward received a game misconduct and match penalty for what is described on the scoresheet as an attempt to injure a player, while Franklin only received a two-minute minor for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The video of McDonald below is from Blazers broadcaster Jon Keen.
Here’s video of tonight’s stick swinging incident at bench. Mcdonald gets Franklin and trainer Toledo Robinson. Broke his glasses. How this didn’t result in serious injury is a miracle. Match penalty. pic.twitter.com/Gcwwo5agtZ
— Jon Keen (@JonKeenNLSports) March 28, 2019
As for what Franklin said to get McDonald going, he wasn't willing to share.
"I think it was a little a run-of-the-mill," says Franklin. "He didn't like it obviously, whatever I said. But we'll keep that between the two benches. Maybe I'll use it again, so I don't want you guys to know."
“The WHL takes incidents of this nature very seriously,” said WHL Commissioner Ron Robison in a statement, adding the league won’t be commenting any further on the decision. “Actions of this kind are unacceptable. The WHL Director of Player Safety is undergoing a complete review of the incident at this time.”
The suspension means McDonald’s 350-plus game career in the WHL could be over if Victoria loses the series, which is now tied at 2-2 after Kamloops won 6-3 last night at the Sandman Centre.
If the Royal’s prevail, Player Safety will re-evaluate the Lethbridge product’s sentence and add a timeframe for his return to the ice.
"I'm not sure what's going to happen, that's definitely above my pay grade to make a decision on that," said Kamloops Head Coach Serge Lajoie speaking on the incident after the game. "But in all the years that I've coached, to show that much disrespect to the game... I don't know what was said, but to act the way that he did and put some of our players on our bench in danger with some stick swinging, I'll be interested to see what the league does."
Chirping away at the lead: Bizarre penalty helps Blazers even series with Royals https://t.co/zdZMKFjdqa pic.twitter.com/yshYh9EPeS
— Kamloops Matters (@KamloopsMatters) March 28, 2019
McDonald played 232 games in his stint with the Prince George Cougars, including 68 in the 2016-17 B.C. Division banner season.
He earned 126 points with 60 goals and 369 penalty minutes before being traded to Prince Albert in 2017-18.
The Raiders dealt him to Victoria at the 2019 WHL Trade Deadline.
The Victoria-Kamloops feud resumes Saturday (March 30) in the provincial capital.
- with files from Eric Thompson, Kamloops Matters
